Borrowing From Flu And Cancer ResearchPfizer’s Dormitzer is more prepared than many to meet the challenges, having led research efforts at Novartis AG in the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic.
That project produced three licensed vaccines in the most rapid pandemic vaccine response until now.At Novartis AG, Dormitzer began testing novel ways to make vaccines using messenger ribonucleic acid, or mRNA, which contains instructions for human cells.
In this case, scientists introduce mRNA instructions for cells to make a portion of a virus, which the immune system recognizes as a threat and counters with a protective response.
No actual virus is involved in the process.By contrast, to create a typical vaccine, scientists use bits of dead or weakened.