New Technology Improves SARS-CoV-2 mRNA Vaccine-Induced Immune Responses

On March 11^th 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that COVID-19 was a global pandemic. In the fight against COVID-19, two FDA-approved mRNA vaccines were developed by Pfizer/BioNTech (BNT162b2) and Moderna (mRNA-1273), which produce the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to activate potent B and T cell responses.^1,2 B cells produce antibodies that bind to the spike protein on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.² Some of these antibodies, called neutralizing antibodies, block the virus from attaching to our cells, thereby effectively preventing infection.³ In addition to mRNA vaccines, potent antibody responses can also be elicited by protein-based vaccines, such as the Novavax NVX-CoV2373 vaccine, that present the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein on the surface of virus-resembling nanoparticles.

Magnus Hoffmann, originally a Caltech graduate student and now an independent research fellow at the Merkin Institute at the California Institute of Technology, wanted to combat two major problems with the current vaccination approaches. ...