{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Hard Drugs","title":"Inventing the second malaria vaccine with Katharine Collins","html":"<iframe width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless src=\"https://share.transistor.fm/e/38c85765\"></iframe>","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":8108,"description":"Malaria is caused not by a virus or bacterium, but by a complex, shape-shifting parasite that has evolved alongside us for millennia. This has made vaccine development a brutal challenge.\nIn this episode, Jacob and Saloni are joined by Katharine Collins, who co-invented the second malaria vaccine, called R21, during her PhD. They discuss the gruelling process of reverse-engineering a vaccine and eureka moments along the way. They ask whether the biggest barriers to new vaccines are scientific or financial, and what it will take to finally eradicate one of natureʼs most vicious killers.\nHard Drugs is a podcast from Works in Progress about medical innovation presented by Saloni Dattani and Jacob Trefethen.\nTimestamps:\n00:00 Introduction\n05:08 Our favourite parasites\n10:12 How to invent a vaccine during your PhD\n34:18 Why is it called the R21 vaccine?\n37:32 Moving from the bench to billions of doses\n41:43 The vicious life cycle of malaria parasites\n46:15 Malaria research IN MICE\n53:03 The murderer in malaria research\n55:51 Would you volunteer to get infected by malaria?\n1:08:21 Why did the first malaria vaccine take so long?\n1:18:26 Could we have had the vaccine sooner?\n1:40:48 Vaccine versus vaccine: which one’s better?\n1:46:53 If we did this again today, could we make better vaccines?\n2:04:55 Conclusion and our reasons for pessimism and optimism\nYou can watch or listen on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.\nSaloni’s substack newsletter: https://www.scientificdiscovery.dev/\n\nJacob’s blog: https://blog.jacobtrefethen.com/ \nAcknowledgements:\nAria Babu, editor at Works in Progress\nGraham Bessellieu, video editor\nAlice Edwards, captions\nAbhishaike Mahajan, cover art\nAtalanta Arden-Miller, art direction\nDavid Hackett, composer\nWorks in Progress\nThesis\nKatharine Collins (2014). R21, a novel particle based vaccine for a multi-component approach to malaria vaccination.\nBooks\nR. Killick-Kendrick (2012). Rodent Malaria.\nMichael Kremer and Rachel Glennerster (2004). Strong...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/bBbAA3-An3hw3uv_Sf647ZQV-IpESOooEROiyEp4Ytg/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS81MzM2/YTc5NmRlZGI2Zjhi/YWM2ZDk4MzBhZjg4/YTRjMi5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}