The Pandemic Prevention Platform at DARPA is working on quickly available and effective protection against pandemic viruses. Using advanced laboratory technologies they want to finish with a shield against the coronavirus this summer.
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The American military developers already gave the world plenty of awesome technologies including the Internet. And their inventions are useful for both the military and civilians. Now, they decided to save the world. Thus, they are developing a new way to boost human immune systems against viruses. That should give governments, armies but mostly average citizens much needed time in the case of a global pandemic. And it seems that maybe DARPA could finish in time to even help with the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Help The Body Help Itself
The program is called the Pandemic Prevention Platform. But! The scientists there aren't trying to develop a vaccine. While DARPA knows that making an RNA vaccine is relatively easy and cheap they also realize that going through the very long process of clinical tests takes a lot of time.
That is why DARPA decided to develop something different. They are working on a monoclonal antibody shield that will function as temporary protection for a few months – possibly giving people enough time until a true vaccine is developed. DARPA's goal is to track down specific monoclonal antibodies that are made by human bodies when it finds a virus and makes the body make the body to create more of these antibodies and protect itself with them.
There is a catch though. It usually takes us some time before we find the antibodies the body uses and before we can use them. One of the key goals of the Pandemic Prevention Platform is to quicken the search for the correct antibodies using B-Lymphocytes of the patients. We need to change the months to years it takes now into just a few weeks. The research lead – Amy Jenkins – and her colleagues are using micro-fluid technologies, nanotechnologies and new ways of sequencing genes to achieve this goal.
The second – but still important – goal of the program is to quicken the speed of making the antibodies. Traditionally, antibodies – just as vaccines – are made in bio-reactors. Jenkins' team is developing a new process for making antibodies using the genetic material of the coronavirus itself. After injecting the RNA – the body should make the needed antibodies. This essentially turns the patient's body into a bioreactor. This is a much easier way to apply genetic material than making and using a traditional vaccine.
With a bit of luck, the monoclonal antibody shield should be finished very quickly. Maybe already in the summer. So, let's wish the scientists luck as that would likely save a lot of lives.
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