This is part of its efforts to popularize science to the general public and students who are pursuing science as their career. TNSF attempt to focus on students on higher science as everyone knows that learning of science at college within the curriculum is not enough to acquire holistic knowledge of science at the appropriate time. Hence, to fill the gap between what students are acquiring through the curriculum and what it is required, TNSF is planning its activities on higher science to students who are pursuing higher education.
About the Lecture In our cells, genetic information encoded in DNA is transferred to messenger RNA (mRNA), which is used as a template for protein production. During the 1980s, efficient methods for producing mRNA without cell culture were introduced, called in vitro transcription. This decisive step accelerated the development of molecular biology applications in several fields. Ideas of using mRNA technologies for vaccine and therapeutic purposes also took off, but roadblocks lay ahead. Karikó and Weissman noticed that dendritic cells recognize in vitro transcribed mRNA as a foreign substance, which leads to their activation and the release of inflammatory signaling molecules. They produced different variants of mRNA, each with unique chemical alterations in their bases, which they delivered to dendritic cells. The results were striking: The inflammatory response was almost abolished when base modifications were included in the mRNA. This was a paradigm change in our understanding of how cells recognize and respond to different forms of mRNA. Karikó and Weissman immediately understood that their discovery had profound significance for using mRNA as therapy. These seminal results were published in 2005.
Introduction
DR. LUKE ELIZABETH HANNA
Scientist F, National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis, Chennai
mRNA vaccines - a new era in vaccinology
Q & A
DR. LUKE ELIZABETH HANNA has a background in Immunology with more than 20 years of working experience in the broad area
of immunopathogenesis of infectious diseases and have undertaken a number of research studies on
host immune responses to pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis, HIV infection and HIV/TB coinfection. She has also been trained in molecular virology of HIV.
She has been actively involved in research aimed at understanding the host immune response to TB, and
TB with HIV and helminth co-infections, and identification of biomarkers for disease progression and
treatment response. The other aspect of her study focuses on characterizing the unique features of HIV1 subtype C isolates circulating in the Indian population. Some interesting observations have been
made in this line and they have resulted in some recent publications. She has also been involved in the
design and development of some clinically and scientifically relevant databases such as TB Drugs,
Mycobacterium tuberculosis Structure Data base (MtbSD) and Database of drug targets for resistant
pathogens (DDTRP).