COVID-19 Vaccines And CRISPR

Robert Armstrong, Ph.D., Professor of Chemistry emeritus, Albion College.

Mondays. 10:00 a.m.—12:00 p.m. May 3, 10. Held in Google Meeting; instructions will be provided to participants. Class size unlimited.

In the first day of this class, we will discuss what a vaccine is; how it protects us from disease; and why we need two injections for some vaccines. We will discuss how in 2020-21 a vaccine was produced in less than one year while the usual production time is 4-5 years. A discussion will center around the difference between the various vaccines.

In Week 2, we will introduce CRISPR, the method that underlies all the new vaccines for Covid-19. We will study how CRISPR and the Cas9 protein were discovered, and how they work to produce specific directed mutations. After background information is given, we will discuss specific applications of CRISPR. For instance, how a Chinese physician treated an embryo to resist HIV Infection, and how a doctor in the United States treated a patient’s bone marrow cells to cure sickle cell anemia. We will have time to discuss the ethics of such experiments and try to determine who should be involved in the regulation of such experiments.