Vaccines in an era of Facebook,Twitter and War

Vaccines have saved more lives than any other drugs. It is true that Big Pharma continues to profit from vaccines but developing vaccines is a high-stakes affair with billions invested. There are obvious ROI issues that prompt pharmaceutical companies to develop drugs against diseases. In an era of massive globalization, where information is only a swipe away, there needs to be continuous oversight of scientific data supporting vaccines. 

Browsing through Facebook, one is inundated by posts linking vaccines to development of various diseases, most infamous among them being autism. Similarly, there are various other autoimmune and inflammatory diseases associated with vaccines. The accompanying posts and comments are often vitriolic, with arguments for and against vaccines.

While I do not wish to enter the debates favoring either camp, this Blog aims to dissect the science behind vaccines and to flesh out the scientific aspects of vaccine development.

The first part of this blog will cover the area of HIV Vaccines

Am I qualified to comment on Scientific Articles in the area of viral pathogenesis? Absolutely!

As a microbiologist, I have worked in the area of vaccines, both bacterial and viral and currently, I am characterizing viral vector-based vaccines against HIV/SIV in macaques. My publication analyzing vaccine efficacy in cynomolgus macaques is currently under review.

1. As a Technical Lead in collaboration with an industry partner, I produced therapeutic antibodies against Ebola virus, which are currently being tested in animals. This was work performed at the Donnelly Center in Toronto in the laboratory of Dr Sachdev Sidhu (2012-2013).

2. As a PhD student (2002-2006) in virology in Dr. Christopher Power’s laboratory at the University of Calgary, I have helped define retroviral neuropathogenesis in the context of neurological disorders using mRNA expression profiling, qPCR quantification of viral pathogens (retrovirus, flavivirus [west Nile virus]).

3. My postdoctoral work in the area of microglia, an immune cell in the brain, wherein I have elucidated a novel role for microglia in the developmental processes of stem cells (J Neurosci. Res.) in the laboratory of Dr Freda Miller (Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto) has helped to establish a unique niche for these immune cells in the brain.

4. As a Junior Research Fellow at Temasek Laboratories in Singapore, I developed a cytokine detection assay for use in Animal Vaccine studies. Mathew JA, Guo YX, Goh KP, Chan J, Verburg-van Kemenade BM, Kwang J. Characterisation of a monoclonal antibody to carp IL-1b and the development of a sensitive capture ELISA. [Fish Shellfish Immunol. 2002 Aug;13(2):85-95]

5. During my graduate studies (MS) at the National University of Singapore, I used Transposon mutagenesis to develop live attenuated bacterial vaccines that proved to be effective against a pathogenic challenge. Mathew JA, Tan YP, Srinivasa Rao PS, Lim TM, Leung KY. Edwardsiella tarda mutants defective in siderophore production, motility, serum resistance and catalase activity. Microbiology. 2001 Feb;147(Pt 2):449-57.

The goals of this blog are

i) Examine scientific data supporting the use of vaccines against emerging pathogens

ii) Examine how social media affects vaccine use 

iii) Investigate how industry uses vaccine data and their effectiveness into a successful business model