[Music]
[Applause]
let me ask you a question what do
Dagwood dogs fairy floss and the flute
have in common well these are things
that a lot of you will pick up at
Queensland’s largest agricultural affair
the ekor in just a few short weeks at
least that’s what my experience was like
I remember one year braving the massive
crowds at the acre picking up a table
table show bag eating everything in that
table table show bag before going home
and having a lovely sugar induced
slumber when I woke up the next morning
I noticed this tiny tickle in my throat
and by that evening was completely bed
bound by the flu this lasted a whole
week I was taking all over running a
really high fever and generally feeling
and probably looking like I’d been run
over by a bus the worst part for me was
that I actually got my flu shot that
year and the year before that and the
year before that too but it didn’t seem
to matter I still got the flu anyway
luckily for me though the only lasting
impact of my brush with the flu was a
convenient introduction today for my
talk but for hundreds of thousands of
people around the world every year a
run-in with the flu ends in
hospitalization or even death and
current flu vaccines are simply not
doing a good enough job to stop this now
I am a virologist so I study viruses
every day and I want to fix this I want
to stop the flu and make a flu vaccine
that actually works but first we need to
understand a bit about current flu
vaccines and some reasons why they’re
maybe not the best so current flu
vaccines are based on a protein that
sticks out from the surface of the virus
called hemagglutinin and funnily enough
these proteins are a little bit similar
to the lollipops that I had in my show
back that year the head of the protein
which is farthest away from the virus
can change a lot and be lots of
different flavors or what I would call a
strain of flu just like a lollipop
different flavors the stem of the
protein is a lot like the lollipop stick
all the different flavors Australians of
hemagglutinin have a stem and they all
pretty much look the same the flu is a
clever virus though and in order to
evade our immune system it mutates the
hemagglutinin protein to make new
flavors this random process might result
in a flu changing from banana to say
choc banana flavor but the stem will
pretty much stay the same so current flu
vaccines are made by killing this virus
with chemicals and isolating what’s left
of the hemagglutinin protein this is
then given to you as a vaccine where
your body learns to recognize the bits
of the protein that are left over so now
when your body sees the real virus the
theory is that because of the vaccine
you already have the weapons in place to
recognize the virus and stop it before
it makes you sick however due to the way
these vaccines are made and the inherent
nature of hemagglutinin the chemicals
often destroy the stem so much so that
it doesn’t look like a stem to your body
anymore
as a result these vaccines only teach
your body to recognize the head of the
protein or the lollipop flavor this
means that if the virus that you happen
to catch at the ekor is a different
flavor to the one you’re vaccinated
against your body can’t recognize any
other parts of the virus to kill it so
you still get sick because of this we
have to make new vaccines every year in
order to try and keep up with the new
flavors of hemagglutinin this is not
always successful though and a good
example of this is the 2009 swine flu
pandemic a new virus emerged with a
completely novel flavor of hemagglutinin
one that the human population had never
seen before
many people became ill very quickly and
a lot of these people actually require
treatment at the hospital a new vaccine
had to be made rapidly and distributed
all around the world but for many it was
just simply too late the virus had
already made them really sick and for
thousands of people
actually proved fatal clearly we need
new flu vaccines vaccines that can
better cope with new flavors of
hemagglutinin or else the next pandemic
could be a lot worse in my PhD my goal
is to create a universal flu vaccine one
that protects against every flavor of
hemagglutinin that way it shouldn’t
matter what flavor of virus you get
infected with your body can still
recognize the stem kill the virus and
stop you getting sick to attempt to
achieve this we have found a new way
using a novel molecular clamp to
stabilize hemagglutinin we have shown
that this molecular clamp allows us to
make hemagglutinin with both the head of
the protein and the stem of the protein
intact which is unlike current vaccines
where the stem gets destroyed in order
to do this we take the DNA sequence that
encodes hemagglutinin and we add a bit
of DNA that encodes our molecular clamp
we then take this combined DNA and put
this into cells in the lab and these
cells read that DNA and translate that
into a protein now as the cells are
reading this DNA and building up out
hemagglutinin protein they’re also
building up our molecular clamp and once
fully assembled this molecular clamp is
extremely stable so it brings together
hemagglutinin both the head and the stem
and holds it together in a really stable
form we can then purify this and use it
as a vaccine the goal of using this
clamped vaccine is to get your body to
recognize the step of hemagglutinin as I
said it will not matter then what flavor
you get infected with because your body
can still recognize the stem and stop
you getting sick so we tested this
theory in mice we vaccinated mice with
one flavor of our clamped hemagglutinin
vaccine and then infected them with a
different flavor of virus one that
they’d never seen before and when we did
this we saw that our vaccine was still
able to protect these mice even though
the virus they were infected with was a
completely different flavor now we still
need to do more tests but initial
results show that our hypothesis is
correct
we are teaching these mice to recognize
the stem of hemagglutinin so then they
could recognize the stem on this
completely new virus and stop themselves
getting sick in fact our data shows that
our vaccine is up to eighty times better
at teaching these mice to recognize the
stem than the current vaccine that you
get at the doctors this means in theory
it should be up to eighty times better
at stopping you getting sick with that
nasty strain of flu is keeping everyone
off work more importantly we showed that
our vaccine could teach these mice to
recognize hemagglutinin from bird flu so
these are nasty viruses that are usually
found in birds but occasionally JumpShip
and infect a human and once the human is
infected you only have about a 50 to 60
percent chance of survival luckily for
us so far a lot of these bird flu
outbreaks have been contained to a few
people before they get on the control
but research in other labs around the
world has shown that these viruses only
need a handful of mutations in order to
be able to spread from human to human
efficiently meaning the next bird flu
pandemic could happen at any day now and
current vaccines would offer very little
protection in this scenario using
current technologies we would first have
to wait and see what virus caused the
outbreak then make a new vaccine based
on that virus and distribute hundreds of
thousands of doses all around the world
all the while this virus could be
spreading around the globe killing
millions of people now if we had our
vaccine we would stand a much better
chance at stopping this pandemic
everyone who had had our vaccine should
be able to recognize the stem of
new pirates and stop the spread this
the beauty about this molecular clamp
technology is how broadly it can be
applied many other deadly viruses like
Ebola SARS Lhasa and Hendra viruses can
all be clamped as we like to say you see
each of these viruses has a lollipop
like protein on a surface just like the
flu
and while these viruses don’t all have
the same issues as the flu with lots of
different flavors of virus these
proteins are built in a very similar way
to hemagglutinin and we have shown that
we can apply our molecular clamp
technology and make really stable
vaccines for these viruses too in fact
we believe we can do this for any virus
that has a lollipop like protein on its
surface
even ones that we don’t know about yet
so if new virus emerges tomorrow there’s
a really good chance that our molecular
clamp technology can be applied and we
can make a really stable vaccine rapidly
so while you may think that the flu is
just a nasty cold that keeps you off
work for a few days
it really isn’t it is a deadly virus and
there is enormous potential for a flu
pandemic to emerge that would take over
the world in a matter of weeks there are
many other deadly viruses like Ebola and
SARS that have wreaked havoc in the past
clearly we need better vaccines to help
cope with the flu and these other
viruses and with our technology we
believe we can really put on the clamps
you [Applause]
[Applause]
let me ask you a question what do
Dagwood dogs fairy floss and the flute
have in common well these are things
that a lot of you will pick up at
Queensland’s largest agricultural affair
the ekor in just a few short weeks at
least that’s what my experience was like
I remember one year braving the massive
crowds at the acre picking up a table
table show bag eating everything in that
table table show bag before going home
and having a lovely sugar induced
slumber when I woke up the next morning
I noticed this tiny tickle in my throat
and by that evening was completely bed
bound by the flu this lasted a whole
week I was taking all over running a
really high fever and generally feeling
and probably looking like I’d been run
over by a bus the worst part for me was
that I actually got my flu shot that
year and the year before that and the
year before that too but it didn’t seem
to matter I still got the flu anyway
luckily for me though the only lasting
impact of my brush with the flu was a
convenient introduction today for my
talk but for hundreds of thousands of
people around the world every year a
run-in with the flu ends in
hospitalization or even death and
current flu vaccines are simply not
doing a good enough job to stop this now
I am a virologist so I study viruses
every day and I want to fix this I want
to stop the flu and make a flu vaccine
that actually works but first we need to
understand a bit about current flu
vaccines and some reasons why they’re
maybe not the best so current flu
vaccines are based on a protein that
sticks out from the surface of the virus
called hemagglutinin and funnily enough
these proteins are a little bit similar
to the lollipops that I had in my show
back that year the head of the protein
which is farthest away from the virus
can change a lot and be lots of
different flavors or what I would call a
strain of flu just like a lollipop
different flavors the stem of the
protein is a lot like the lollipop stick
all the different flavors Australians of
hemagglutinin have a stem and they all
pretty much look the same the flu is a
clever virus though and in order to
evade our immune system it mutates the
hemagglutinin protein to make new
flavors this random process might result
in a flu changing from banana to say
choc banana flavor but the stem will
pretty much stay the same so current flu
vaccines are made by killing this virus
with chemicals and isolating what’s left
of the hemagglutinin protein this is
then given to you as a vaccine where
your body learns to recognize the bits
of the protein that are left over so now
when your body sees the real virus the
theory is that because of the vaccine
you already have the weapons in place to
recognize the virus and stop it before
it makes you sick however due to the way
these vaccines are made and the inherent
nature of hemagglutinin the chemicals
often destroy the stem so much so that
it doesn’t look like a stem to your body
anymore
as a result these vaccines only teach
your body to recognize the head of the
protein or the lollipop flavor this
means that if the virus that you happen
to catch at the ekor is a different
flavor to the one you’re vaccinated
against your body can’t recognize any
other parts of the virus to kill it so
you still get sick because of this we
have to make new vaccines every year in
order to try and keep up with the new
flavors of hemagglutinin this is not
always successful though and a good
example of this is the 2009 swine flu
pandemic a new virus emerged with a
completely novel flavor of hemagglutinin
one that the human population had never
seen before
many people became ill very quickly and
a lot of these people actually require
treatment at the hospital a new vaccine
had to be made rapidly and distributed
all around the world but for many it was
just simply too late the virus had
already made them really sick and for
thousands of people
actually proved fatal clearly we need
new flu vaccines vaccines that can
better cope with new flavors of
hemagglutinin or else the next pandemic
could be a lot worse in my PhD my goal
is to create a universal flu vaccine one
that protects against every flavor of
hemagglutinin that way it shouldn’t
matter what flavor of virus you get
infected with your body can still
recognize the stem kill the virus and
stop you getting sick to attempt to
achieve this we have found a new way
using a novel molecular clamp to
stabilize hemagglutinin we have shown
that this molecular clamp allows us to
make hemagglutinin with both the head of
the protein and the stem of the protein
intact which is unlike current vaccines
where the stem gets destroyed in order
to do this we take the DNA sequence that
encodes hemagglutinin and we add a bit
of DNA that encodes our molecular clamp
we then take this combined DNA and put
this into cells in the lab and these
cells read that DNA and translate that
into a protein now as the cells are
reading this DNA and building up out
hemagglutinin protein they’re also
building up our molecular clamp and once
fully assembled this molecular clamp is
extremely stable so it brings together
hemagglutinin both the head and the stem
and holds it together in a really stable
form we can then purify this and use it
as a vaccine the goal of using this
clamped vaccine is to get your body to
recognize the step of hemagglutinin as I
said it will not matter then what flavor
you get infected with because your body
can still recognize the stem and stop
you getting sick so we tested this
theory in mice we vaccinated mice with
one flavor of our clamped hemagglutinin
vaccine and then infected them with a
different flavor of virus one that
they’d never seen before and when we did
this we saw that our vaccine was still
able to protect these mice even though
the virus they were infected with was a
completely different flavor now we still
need to do more tests but initial
results show that our hypothesis is
correct
we are teaching these mice to recognize
the stem of hemagglutinin so then they
could recognize the stem on this
completely new virus and stop themselves
getting sick in fact our data shows that
our vaccine is up to eighty times better
at teaching these mice to recognize the
stem than the current vaccine that you
get at the doctors this means in theory
it should be up to eighty times better
at stopping you getting sick with that
nasty strain of flu is keeping everyone
off work more importantly we showed that
our vaccine could teach these mice to
recognize hemagglutinin from bird flu so
these are nasty viruses that are usually
found in birds but occasionally JumpShip
and infect a human and once the human is
infected you only have about a 50 to 60
percent chance of survival luckily for
us so far a lot of these bird flu
outbreaks have been contained to a few
people before they get on the control
but research in other labs around the
world has shown that these viruses only
need a handful of mutations in order to
be able to spread from human to human
efficiently meaning the next bird flu
pandemic could happen at any day now and
current vaccines would offer very little
protection in this scenario using
current technologies we would first have
to wait and see what virus caused the
outbreak then make a new vaccine based
on that virus and distribute hundreds of
thousands of doses all around the world
all the while this virus could be
spreading around the globe killing
millions of people now if we had our
vaccine we would stand a much better
chance at stopping this pandemic
everyone who had had our vaccine should
be able to recognize the stem of
new pirates and stop the spread this
the beauty about this molecular clamp
technology is how broadly it can be
applied many other deadly viruses like
Ebola SARS Lhasa and Hendra viruses can
all be clamped as we like to say you see
each of these viruses has a lollipop
like protein on a surface just like the
flu
and while these viruses don’t all have
the same issues as the flu with lots of
different flavors of virus these
proteins are built in a very similar way
to hemagglutinin and we have shown that
we can apply our molecular clamp
technology and make really stable
vaccines for these viruses too in fact
we believe we can do this for any virus
that has a lollipop like protein on its
surface
even ones that we don’t know about yet
so if new virus emerges tomorrow there’s
a really good chance that our molecular
clamp technology can be applied and we
can make a really stable vaccine rapidly
so while you may think that the flu is
just a nasty cold that keeps you off
work for a few days
it really isn’t it is a deadly virus and
there is enormous potential for a flu
pandemic to emerge that would take over
the world in a matter of weeks there are
many other deadly viruses like Ebola and
SARS that have wreaked havoc in the past
clearly we need better vaccines to help
cope with the flu and these other
viruses and with our technology we
believe we can really put on the clamps
you [Applause]
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