Computer-assisted vaccine development
Classical vaccines use attenuated pathogens or virus building blocks to make the body develop antibodies. With viruses this does not always work because their surface structure is very variable and can change constantly. In the case of an actual infection this can sometimes mean that the immune system does not recognise them. This is why, in searching for a vaccine against the Corona virus SARS-CoV-2, the microbiologist Torben Schiffner is focussing on the epitopes on the surface of viruses. These are the parts of the molecule that make the body generate the specific antibodies that can successfully fight the virus.
With the help of computer software called ROSETTA, Schiffner’s host, Humboldt Professor Jens Meiler, and his colleagues have already managed to identify the structure of the highly effective antibodies that were found in the blood of Corona patients from Wuhan. As a Sofja Kovalevskaja award winner Torben Schiffner will identify and recreate the epitopes that fit these antibodies on the lock-and-key principle, with the aid of the software. ROSETTA enables researchers to create their molecular structure both cost-effectively and very quickly as well as to make predictions about their binding behaviour. Schiffner also has the experimental experience to test the parts of the molecule that might be suitable for a vaccine in combination with a protein in an in vitro experiment and to optimise them by directed evolution. He intends to apply this approach to other viruses which have posed difficulties for vaccine researchers, such as the hepatitis C virus.
Torben Schiffner was born in Germany and studied molecular life sciences, molecular biology and virus pathology at the University of Hamburg and Imperial College London, United Kingdom. He took his doctorate at Oxford University, UK, in 2014. Following periods of research at Oxford University and The Scripps Research Institute, San Diego, United States, he has most recently been a research associate at The Scripps Research Institute.
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