Major Research That Could Improve the World
Medicine: A universal flu vaccine
The universal flu shot, which has eluded scientists for decades, may be one truly
groundbreaking medical advances that could show up in the next 10 years.
"It has sort of become a joke that a
universal flu vaccine is perennially just five
to 10 years away," said Dr. Amesh Adalja,
an infectious-disease specialist and senior
scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for
Health Security in Baltimore.
But now, it appears that this "may actually
be true," Adalja told Live Science. "Various
approaches to universal flu vaccines are in
advanced development, and promising
results are starting to accrue."
In theory, a universal flu vaccine would provide long-lasting protection against the flu, and
would eliminate the need to get a flu shot each year.
Some parts of the flu virus are constantly changing, while others remain mostly unchanged
from year to year. All of the approaches to a universal flu vaccine target parts of the virus
that are less variable.
This year, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) began its first-inhuman trial of a universal flu vaccine. The immunization aims to induce an immune
response against a less variable part of the flu virus known as the hemagglutinin (HA)
"stem." This Phase 1 study will look at the safety of the experimental vaccine, as well as
participants' immune responses to it. Researchers hope to report their initial results in early
2020.
Another universal-vaccine candidate, made by the Israeli company BiondVax, is currently in
Phase 3 trials, which is an advanced stage of research that looks at whether the vaccine
really is effective — meaning that it protects against infection from any strain of flu. That
vaccine candidate contains nine different proteins from various parts of the flu virus that
vary little between flu strains, according to The Scientist. The study has already enrolled
more than 12,000 people, and results are expected at the end of 2020, according to the
company.
Climate Change: Transformed energy systems
Scientists have been predicating the effects of burning coal and fossil fuels on the
temperature of the planet for over 100 years. When this is burned, uniting with oxygen, it
adds about 7,000,000,000 tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere yearly. This tends to
make the air a more effective blanket for the earth and to raise its temperature. As a result,
the whole world felt an uptick in warming.
"I think we will see a breakthrough when it comes to action on climate," said Michael Mann,
a distinguished professor of meteorology at Penn State University. "But we need policies
that will accelerate that transition, and we need politicians who will support those policies,"
he told Live Science.
In the next decade, "the transformation
of energy and transportation systems to
renewable energy sources will be well
under way, and new approaches and
technologies will have been developed
that allow us to get there faster," said
Donald Wuebbles, a professor of
atmospheric sciences at the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. And,
"the increasing climate-related impacts
from severe weather and perhaps from
sea-level rise finally get enough people's
attention that we really begin to take
climate change seriously."
Good thing too, because based on recent evidence, there's a scarier, more speculative,
possibility: Scientists might be underestimating the effects that climate change has had on
this century and beyond, Wuebbles said. "We should learn much more about that over the
next decade."
Editing Genes
Ever since the double-helix structure of DNA was revealed in the early 1950s, scientists have
hypothesized about the possibility of artificially modifying DNA to change the functions of
an organism. The first approved gene therapy trial occurred in 1990, when a four-year-old
girl had her own white blood cells removed, augmented with the genes that produce an
enzyme called adenosine deaminase (ADA), and then reinjected into her body to treat ADA
deficiency, a genetic condition that hampers the immune system’s ability to fight disease.
The patient’s body began producing the ADA enzyme, but new white blood cells with the
corrected gene were not produced, and she had to continue receiving injections.
Now, genetic engineering is more precise and
available than ever before, thanks in large part
to a new tool first used to modify eukaryotic
cells (complex cells with a nucleus) in 2013:
CRISPR-Cas9.
The gene editing tool works by locating a
targeted section of DNA and “cutting” out that
section with the Cas9 enzyme. An optional third
step involves replacing the deleted section of
DNA with new genetic material.
The technique can be used for a wide range of applications, from increasing the muscle
mass of livestock, to producing resistant and fruitful crops, to treating diseases like
cancer by removing a patient’s immune system cells, modifying them to better fight a
disease, and reinjecting them into the patient’s body.
In late 2018, Chinese researchers led by He Jiankui announced that they had used CRISPRCas9 to genetically modify human embryos, which were then transferred to a woman’s
uterus and resulted in the birth of twin girls—the first gene-edited babies. The twins’
genomes were modified to make the girls more resistant to HIV, although the genetic
alterations may have also resulted in unintended changes. The work was widely condemned
by the scientific community as unethical and dangerous, revealing a need for stricter
regulations for how these powerful new tools are used, particularly when it comes to
changing the DNA of embryos and using those embryos to birth live children.
With proper ethical guidelines in place, research in editing genes will benefit mankind with
its potential in solving some of the medical problems faced by people.