mRNA VACCINES

 In March of 1963, Dr. Maurice Hilleman was woken up one night by his 5-year-old daughter. She was complaining of a sore throat. So, Hilleman looked her over and determined she had the mumps. Unable to sleep, he was struck with an idea. He swabbed her throat for a sample, drove to the lab, and got to work. Four years later, his mumps vaccine was approved. It was the fastest vaccine that has ever been made, until now.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, researchers and public health experts warned us that the earliest possible window for a vaccine would be the end of 2020. They also cautioned us that vaccine development takes time and that it could be much longer than that.

But in 2020, vaccines for Covid-19 shattered previous records, going from development to approval in a matter of months. That speed was driven by billions of dollars, and a global effort. But in some cases, it was also because of a breakthrough in vaccine technology decades in the making, something that could shrink this timeline going ahead and change how we make vaccines altogether.

Vaccines teach your immune system how to respond to a threat. And traditionally, there have been four ways to do this.

Live-attenuated vaccines

These types of vaccines use a weakened form of the germ that causes the disease. Because these vaccines are so similar to the natural infection that they help prevent, they create a strong and long-lasting immune response. Live attenuated vaccines are used to protect against Measles, Rotavirus, Smallpox, Chickenpox, and Yellow Fever.

Inactivated Vaccines

These types of vaccines use the killed version of the germ that causes the disease. Inactivated vaccines usually don’t provide immunity that's as strong as live vaccines. These are used to protect against Hepatitis A, Polio, Flu, and Rabies.

Toxoid Vaccines

These types of vaccines use a toxin (harmful product) made by the germ that causes a disease. They create immunity to the parts of the germ that cause disease instead of the germ itself. These are used to protect against Diphtheria and Tetanus.

Recombinant Protein Vaccines

These types of vaccines use specific pieces of the germ—like its protein, sugar, or capsid (a casing around the germ). Because these vaccines use only specific pieces of the germ, they give a very strong immune response that’s targeted to key parts of the germ. These are used to protect against HPV and Hepatitis B.

All four of these types of vaccines have one thing in common, they all require growing and transporting large amounts of live pathogens in a lab. And that takes a lot of time. For example, to make the measles vaccine, scientists had to grow the virus for almost ten years. They needed to weaken the virus enough that it would trigger an immune response without making you sick.

On average, it takes 5 to 10 years for a vaccine to reach FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approval in the United States. Most Covid-19 vaccines have gotten through this process a lot faster by overlapping the different phases of human trials, and by starting the manufacturing early. But some vaccines have also found a ground-breaking way to speed up this first section- by shifting some of the work out of the lab, and into your body.

In the closing weeks of the year, two vaccines, one from Pfizer and BioNTech (which is also the first vaccine in the world to get an emergency use approval from WHO) and one from Moderna, began rolling out in some parts of the world. They weren’t the first worldwide, but they were, in a sense, the first of their kind.

Nearly every function in the human body is carried out by proteins. So, our cells are constantly manufacturing them. To do that, they make a single-stranded copy of DNA. That copy is called messenger RNA, or mRNA. Each strand of mRNA holds the information on how to make one type of protein. The cell reads the mRNA, follows the instructions, and makes a protein.

Researchers who developed these two new vaccines, called mRNA Vaccines, started with the genetic sequence of the virus. They also decided to focus on the spike protein of the virus. The spike protein is what allows the coronavirus to enter your cells. When injected into your body on its own, it's harmless. But your body will still recognize it as a foreign threat, and launch an immune response to fight it off, which is enough to teach your body how to fight the whole virus.

But instead of assembling and purifying that protein in a lab, they identified the part of the genetic sequence that creates it -and then took a much faster route, by synthesizing mRNA, and using that as the vaccine, which saved months of time and money.

Once it's inside the body, the cell reads the mRNA and begins to make harmless spike proteins of its own. From there, your body’s immune system recognizes the foreign threat and sounds the alarm. Then our body starts to build an army of antibodies, those are immune proteins that bind to the real virus and clear it away if you get infected.

Then, after a while, your cells get rid of that mRNA but your body remembers how to defend itself. It’s like showing the picture of a bad guy around town so everyone knows who to look out for if they ever show up.

Now, we can’t just inject straight mRNA into someone’s body, because your body is really good at chewing up and getting rid of foreign genetic material that’s not supposed to be there. That’s where the other vaccine ingredients come in. Both Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines contain a variety of lipids. The word ‘lipid’ is just the scientific name for fat or fat-like molecule.

All of these lipids together form tiny little protective bubbles around the mRNA. One of the lipids sticks to the mRNA, others form the structure of the bubble and help it cross your cell membrane into your cells where it can be used, and other lipids keep the bubbles from clumping together. In both of these vaccines, this whole complex is called an LNP (Lipid Nanoparticle).

The next category of ingredients is Salts. Salts help balance the pH of the whole mixture, making it the same pH as your body. Salts balance pH by redistributing charges. A basic salt like sodium acetate helps balance out any acidity. Last but not least is Sucrose, which is there to keep everything stable at really cold temperatures. You wonder, "Why were those RNA vaccines stored at the temperature of dry ice?"

It's because RNA has a problem with degradation. So, Sucrose (Sugar) essentially packs in around all the proteins and lipids in the other vaccine ingredients, keeping them from losing their shape and therefore, their properties.

Now Answer this : Who was the first person to get vaccinated against Smallpox by the Father of Immunology, Edward Jenner?

mRNA Vaccines have broken a lot of records in terms of efficacy, costs, and speed. And while they’ll have a big impact on how we fight Covid-19, their real impact is just beginning.

A vaccine that delivers specific instructions to your body opens up a whole new world of vaccine technologies and disease treatments, for things like cancer or HIV. Finding a vaccine was a turning point for the pandemic. But the pandemic might also be a turning point for vaccines.

Wearables & Chatbots : The Future Health Monitors

In the current situation where COVID 19, a global pandemic, is plaguing global health affecting millions of lives all over the world, technology has come to the rescue. 

Digital technology is being widely used to help limit the spread of coronavirus. Digital tools such as telehealth, smart sensors, wearables, and even consumer-facing AI-based chatbots are playing a key role in containing the outbreak of COVID-19 within limits and helping people who think they've been exposed to the novel coronavirus.

Wearables, smart sensors, and chatbots are all there to help combat the virus by serving as a health tech for a daily check-up and can warn people of any symptoms of the novel COVID-19 virus. In efforts to maintain a check over the person's health status: body temperature or heart rates etc, these smart tech tools are doing a great job.

As the COVID-19 virus can spread through asymptomatic people who might not realize they are sick, health monitoring through these technologies can help at a basic low level before any major testing of the virus. 

As now people are gradually starting the process of resuming the daily work routines, they need to keep caution. Wearables and sensors can be the best partners in this, serving as a helping tool to keep track of the health status and to indicate any unlikely symptoms of the virus.

These technologies are playing a pivotal role in providing us insights on the current state of our health. Monitoring coronavirus patients remotely with clinical-grade sensors and collecting data on numerous physiological signals can be helpful for clinical testing.

Researchers turn to wearables and sensors in the race to track Covid-19

As current viral tests and vaccines are slow to emerge, robust disease detection and monitoring of individual and population health could be aided through the wearable sensors. The data from wearable systems may alert people of the potential of SARS-CoV-2 infection before symptoms become severe.

Researchers are turning to wearable technologies such as Fitbits and Apple Watches in a new bid to tackle coronavirus, using them to gather large volumes of real-time patient data to track the course of the disease.

Wearable tech systems work by monitoring several physical and physiological parameters - such as heart rate, body temperature, blood pressure, movement, sleep, and more, which can indicate the presence of a virus, even before the symptoms are felt. 

By constantly monitoring fluctuations in these metrics, they provide a valuable stream of health data that would otherwise be more difficult and laborious for researchers to capture. The information collected from personal sensors can improve remote patient monitoring. 

"Integration of biomedical sensors on employees' arms through smartwatches, which can be connected through dedicated analytic servers, can help to test if employees are sick or not," explains IEEE member Ramneek Kalra.

Ford employees are using smartwatches that alert them of any close contact with other workers. The devices utilize Bluetooth short-wave and low-power technology to detect proximity and clustering of workers. They receive vibration and a color-coded warning on the watch, whenever they come closer than six feet to another person.  

Another efficient way to track health is through the use of passive sensors, especially human body temperature detecting sensors. Health centers and other public places have devices with thermal sensors installed for mandatory self-service, touch-free temperature checks at the entrance.

For example, airports are using infrared technology to calculate the temperatures of passengers passing through the lobby. Corporations are also installing sensors in the break room and restroom entryways. By combining the data obtained from these sensors, it is possible to infer the health status of employees. 

Chatbots : providing instant triage

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently launched a chatbot to combat COVID-19 in collaboration with Facebook. The new chatbot is now a part of Facebook’s popular instant messaging platform Messenger. With this, W.H.O has expanded its Health Alert platform by offering people instant and accurate information about the coronavirus outbreak through a chatbot.

A chatbot is a software program that simulates human conversation through voice commands or text chats or both. Chatbots are Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based tools that can be embedded and used through any major messaging applications. 

Based on conversational artificial intelligence (A.I.) technology they provide users with information through text or voice-based interaction. Due to its ease-of-use and effectiveness, small and large organizations alike are embracing chatbots.

These AI-based chatbots could be effective for triaging and guiding the general public for self-isolation. For example, by plugging in or virtually discussing symptoms with a chatbot, users may be able to seek better guidance on whether or not they should consult a doctor. They can engage people and provide information about their disease or ask them to take certain precautions.

These COVID-19 Risk Assessment Chatbots use AI-driven solutions for medical diagnosis. The information these chatbots provide can be customized to the needs and symptoms of the individual. Response to specific questions can be provided interactively, more rapidly than traditional online search methods. 

The information is also adaptable to local guidelines and regulations, based on the location of the user. It will not be 100 percent accurate, as not every person will be classically symptomatic when they use a bot and might simply be an atypical case. However, the goal at a public health level is to minimize the spread of the virus. 

There is a range of technologies that are being adopted quite rapidly to help fight against COVID-19. Just think of the potential of apps to report on daily health, track and trace infected people and identify their contacts, to provide information about symptoms and treatment options. These may raise privacy concerns, but that may be a small price to pay for public health and wellness.

We hope you liked this blog. Do like and share with all your friends and for suggestions, comment below!

Happy Reading!

Biosensors - Key to rapid COVID-19 Tests

COVID-19 has shaken up the entire world in a mere a few months.While conventional testing technologies such as quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), serology tests have their own trade-offs but they are time-consuming, labor-intensive and unavailable in remote areas.

And on the contrary, chip-based or paper-based biosensors are typically user-friendly low-cost devices having tremendous potential for rapid medical diagnosis.

The (qRT-PCR) technology looks for a specific sequence of RNA in the sample unique to coronavirus and copies it repeatedly with the addition of different chemicals and the temperature of the solution is cycled. A fluorescent molecule is attached to each copy and when enough RNA copies collect over; the sample glows when hit by light.

With this test, there are few issues; firstly, it is a lab process; secondly, the necessary chemicals can be short in supply and the fastest tests struggle with false negatives. 

Then, there are serology tests but it can recognize only if someone has those viruses in the past not if he/she is currently suffering. This test majorly measures if the blood has started making antibodies against that particular virus. This is a color-change test more like a pregnancy test stick. According to the sources, around 100 antibodies tests have been launched in the market but the accuracy varies.

These traditional diagnoses are either higher in cost or the accuracy varies with a great range and are slow but with the rapid increase in patients’ numbers, the world searches for faster, low-cost solutions.

Companies like Cardea Bio and Hememics are publicly talking about their work on developing such biosensors. 

For viral RNA or antibody detection, the biosensors rely on semiconductor circuitry coated with a biological extract that binds with the biological interest in the sample fluid, and the noticeable flow of electrons changes when such binding occurs. 

Structured much like a Silicon MOSFET with source, drain, and gate between them, in biosensors, the gate is controlled by the binding of the biomolecules more like a BioFET. 

Along with that, biosensors do not require multiplication of the biological material, therefore, the test will be practically lot speedier than the conventional ones. And since any chip contains multiple circuits, multiple tests for different kinds can run simultaneously without any test intervening with the other and this will not only reduce the false results but will provide additional information about the patient’s health.

Cardea has been working over programmable biosensors to platforms to detect DNA, RNA, antibodies and other molecular signals since 2013 and in Jan’2019, it was also ready to work with its commercial partners to develop its products and by the end of 2019, COBO technologies announced that it will be using Cardea platform in a system for quality control of genome engineering when the global pandemic drew the whole world’s attention. 

For a fact for you to be known, Cardea’s special sauce is its use for special molecules from CRISPER technology as a biological detection for RNA.

According to the CEO, Michael Heltzen, Cardea is currently working over the CRISPER test for virus detection for several months and the tests are performing well. Optimizations are still on the line and the issue is from mass production to extreme mass production which is considered to be a holding back matter according to Heltzen but as they say, the company is in discussion with large investors and companies for financial support.

Hememics, the company popular for developing a special sauce that can preserve biological material in a dry form, is also developing biosensors for faster covid virus detection. Before they have been putting antibodies to look for protein but now, they have flipped the chip as they say the version is in development. 

They will be able to test one form of biomolecules in one circuit and some other one on other circuits; multiple tests simultaneously on a faster rate. The technology can be used to test for the virus or the antibodies—or, in the case of a saliva sample, both simultaneously, he says.

Hememics has raised $2.5 million from AMVI Partners and hopes to receive an additional $3 million from the same investment firm and they believe it could have biosensors for coronavirus testing to market by the end of 2020. Rogue Valley Microdevices has already started manufacturing sensor chips for both Cardea and Hememics according to the sources.

Biosensors are not only a critical component to combat the current pandemic but also the future virus attacks. If we are healthy and we can fight against health hazards, we can achieve whatnot. So, we believe, the health sector should be invested in large amounts for the development of such wondrous components like biosensors reaching to massive hands. 

We hope you liked this blog. Do like and share with all your friends and for suggestions, comment below!

Happy Reading!

AI for COVID-19

HOW FAR HAS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE REACHED TO BEAT THE NOVEL COVID-19?

Technology has been efficacious invariably in extricating living beings from perilous diseases. Any disease can become more threatening when humankind is incapacitated in spotting its existence in the body, and thus, it always acts as a conundrum for them.  The burgeoning science and technology sector has come up with a plan of bringing AI into play by using it to detect intimidating viruses.

Since the first report of the novel COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, it is now a pandemic causing stillness to at least 140 countries. As China initiated its response to the virus, it leaned on its strong technology sector and specifically artificial intelligence (AI), data science, and technology to track and fight the pandemic while tech leaders, including Alibaba, Baidu, Huawei and more accelerated their company's healthcare initiatives. As a result, tech start-ups are integrally involved with clinicians, academics, and government entities around the world to activate technology as the virus continues to spread in many other countries and India as well.

The patient-doctor ratio in India is as low as 1,700:1. Also, ~70% of the healthcare infrastructure is in cities, which cater to ~30% of the country's population. With the use of artificial intelligence applications, doctors can offer their services to more patients and reduce the existing gap in demand and supply of medical services in the country. AI-enabled healthcare services can be delivered at lower costs with increased efficiency and an emphasis on diagnostics. Moreover, artificial intelligence enables hospitals to implement patient-centric plans and eliminate unnecessary hospital procedures, making delivery of healthcare services faster in India.

Here are 10 ways, artificial intelligence, data science, and technology are being used to manage and fight COVID-19:

1. To identify, track and forecast outbreaks:

To fight Covid-19 we must be able to track it. By frequently analysing news reports, social media platforms, travel records and government documents, AI can learn to detect an outbreak. Tracking infectious disease risks by using AI is exactly what the Canadian start-up BlueDot provides. The BlueDot’s AI warned of the threat several days before the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention or the World Health Organization issued their public warnings.


Kamran Khan, the Blue dot Founder and CEO says the algorithm doesn’t use social media postings because that data is too messy. But he does have one trick up his sleeve: access to global airline ticketing data that can help predict where and when infected residents are headed next. It correctly predicted that the virus would jump from Wuhan to Bangkok, Seoul, Taipei, and Tokyo in the days following its initial appearance.

2. To help diagnose the virus:

Artificial Intelligence Company Infervision launched a coronavirus AI solution that helps front-line healthcare workers detect and monitor the disease efficiently.They use AI in detecting the disease competently which in turn helps in averting its swift spread.Viruses have made the work of individuals concerned with the healthcare facilities increasingly onerous but this solution helps them by reducing the time taken for CT diagnosis. Jack Ma's e-commerce company Alibaba also asseverates that they have built up an AI-driven system that is accurate up to 96% in diagnosing the virus within seconds.

3. Advanced fabrics offer protection:

An Israeli start-up Sonovia provides healthcare sectors, public and government officials with face masks made from their fabricated anti-pathogen, anti-bacterial fabric which relies on metal-oxide nanoparticles.

4. To process healthcare claims:

The financial transactions of the business field aren't the only one to be monitored but the ones being carried out in the field of medicines and health centres should also be.  This is so because many companies, hospitals and health centres etc. which manufacture and distribute medicines, antiseptics and disinfectants etc.deal with a huge sum of money. These transactions are to be kept an eye on, to prevent any mishap or to prevent someone from taking advantage out of this situation. This requires constant surveillance and with the COVID 19 breakout throughout the world which has been said to be 'pandemic' by the WHO, least contact in person to person should be maintained. With such a huge amount of money involved a blockchain platform which works with peer to peer network can be trusted and the money can be handled safely and so can the patients and hospital staff. The hospital staff can still provide the patients with their needs of medicines and surgical masks etc. without coming in contact with them. They can sit behind the monitor and handle everything easily and safely with a little bit of care.

5. To let drones deliver medical supplies:

Getting vital equipment and medicines from A to B is not always a straightforward process, especially in harsh environments like war zones or during environmental disasters. Consequently, drones are deployed to help speed up the delivery process. Medical Technology rounds up key areas where drones are helping to get medical supplies where they are most needed. Terra Drone is using its unmanned aerial vehicles to transport medical samples and quarantine material with minimal risk between Xinchang County’s disease control centre and the People’s Hospital. Drones also are used to patrol public spaces, track non-compliance to quarantine mandates, and for thermal imaging.

6. Develop drugs:

Google's DeepMind has shared AI-generated predictions about the Coronavirus that could help researchers stem the global outbreak.

Google’s DeepMind division used its latest AI algorithms and its computing power to recognize the proteins that might compose the virus and published the findings to help others develop treatment methods. Google’s DeepMind unit this week offered up data files of its best guess of the structure of some proteins that may be implicated in the Coronavirus.

 Proteins do the vast amount of the work of organisms, and understanding the three-dimensional shape of the proteins in COVID-19 couldprovide a kind of blueprint of the virus behind the disease, which could conceivably aid in coming up with a vaccine. Efforts are underway around the world to deduce the structure of those viral proteins, of which DeepMind's is just one effort. 

DeepMind's protein-probing program reflects decades of work by chemists and physicists, biologists, computer and data scientists and use AI to mine through existing medical information to find drugs that they say might be helpfulto tackle the novel Coronavirus.

The company BenevolentAI uses AI systems to build drugs that can combat the world’s toughest diseases and is presently helping support. Within weeks of the outbreak, it utilized its predictive capabilities to propose existing drugs that might be useful. 

Meanwhile, a Maryland-based biotech company, Insilico, used AI to come up with new molecules that could serve as potential medications, and it will now synthesize and test 100 of the compounds.

7. Sterilization, delivery of food/supplies and execution of other such tasks using robots:

Robots being unsusceptible to the virus are deployed to perform several tasks such as cleaning, sterilizing and delivering food and medicines to reduce the amount of human-to-human contact. Examples are the UVD robots from Blue Ocean Robotics which uses ultraviolet light to autonomously kill bacteria and viruses. In China, Pudu Technologydeployed its robots that are typically used in the catering industry to more than 40 hospitals around the country.

8. AI to identify non-compliance or infected individuals:

 ‘Smart helmets’ are used by the officials in Sichuan province to identify people with fever. China government’s surveillance system uses facial recognition and temperature detection software from SenseTime to identify people who might have a fever and be more likely to have the virus. The Chinese government has also developed a monitoring system called Health Code that uses big data to identify and assesses the risk of each individual based on their travel history, how much time they have spent in virus hotspots, and potential exposure to people carrying the virus. 

9. Supercomputers working on a coronavirus vaccine:

To curtail the accelerated spread of Corona virus and at the same time minimize the number of individual being prone to it, several supercomputers have been deployed, which aims to develop a Corona virus vaccine. Technologies like the cloud computing resources and supercomputers of almost every major tech companies such as Tencent, DiDi, and Huawei are being used by researchers to fast-track the development of either a cure or vaccine for the virus. The major objective is that the rate at which these systems run calculations and provide model solutions is greater than standard computer processing.

10. Chatbots to share information:

Tencent’s WeChat, where people can access free online health consultation services through chatbots has proved to be an essential communication tool for service providers in the travel and tourism industry to keep travellers updated on the latest travel procedures and disruptions and to the people who use public transport for office work.

Technology has always been a boon to the civilisation. The above examples clearly are a witness to this fact and can be used to maintain optimism in this situation of panic. IEEE SB NITP would like to remind everyone that our organizations are leaving no stone unturned to fight the novel Covid-19 and therefore we should fully cooperate with the guidelines as issued by the government and the WHO.

Please visit https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019 for protective measures, mask usage and disposal, effective ways of washing hands, what to eat, myths and lot more.

Stay safe readers!