🦠 Scientists create a potent flu vaccine that could last years

Wednesday

Nov 02 2022

The annual flu shot is both a bothersome pain in the arm and a lifesaving public health measure. Part of the annoyance is that you have to go and get it every year and as simple as it seems, people live busy lives and have limited free time, even for important tasks (I still haven't gotten mine yet).

When mRNA technology made its premier debut in the novel Covid-19 vaccines, it begged the question: What more can this technology do? Can it, for instance, make superior flu shots? In a study that came out this week, a team of researchers sought to answer this question by using the mRNA tech to create a flu shot that ignites an immune response to four different influenza viral proteins, hopefully making it more potent and more resistant to future strains. Right now, the flu shot needs to be updated every year because its constantly morphing into a new and unrecognizable (at least to our immune systems) form.

The new vaccines have only been tested in mice, which are of course not humans, so there's still a long way to go, but read on to get a glimpse at what the future of flu shots might be.

What's New

Influenza

Mind and Body

Scientists create a potent flu vaccine that could last years

In a study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and other institutions have cooked up an mRNA-based influenza vaccine that targets four viral proteins that tend to remain the same across different strains of influenza.

What has really made the dream of a potent flu shot come alive is messenger RNA (or mRNA) technology, the same used for Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccines. It involves taking a piece of genetic code that isn’t capable of altering anyone’s DNA and instructing it to make a particular type of protein that the immune system can then learn to recognize and target.

Marvel

Movies

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever originally had an Endgame-centric story, director reveals

In the summer of 2020, Ryan Coogler was drafting the script that would become Black Panther: Wakanda Forever when Chadwick Boseman died of colon cancer at just 43.

As Boseman was mourned, Coogler had the unenviable task of ensuring the show went on. In August, Coogler wrote in remembrance, “I spent the last year preparing, imagining and writing words for him to say, that we weren’t destined to see.”

Now, as Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s November 11 release draws near, Coogler tells Inverse what the movie would have been about had Boseman been able to participate. The biggest surprise may be that even before the actor’s death, the movie was always going to be about grief.

Academic Bias

Science

New research finds a disturbing pattern of discrimination at the highest levels of STEM

Gender and racial discrimination does not spare higher institutions of learning.

A new paper published October 6 in the journal Nature Physics found that in 1.07 million physics papers published from 1995 to 2020 across 35 physics journals, male-sounding names were widely over-cited, and female-sounding names were severely under-cited. This paper is just the latest look at what structural gender bias looks like in academia. The authors note that this experience is compounded when a woman is a racial minority.

NOT DEAD YET

Science

NASA's mission to the heart of a dead protoplanet is back on

The agency announced on October 28 that after months of scrutiny, an independent review board has decided it’s possible to move forward with the Psyche mission — humanity’s first venture to a metallic asteroid, 16 Psyche.

The Psyche mission is now on track to launch in October 2023, which means it could reach its namesake destination in August 2029 after a gravity-assist swing past Mars in 2026. In the meantime, the mission team is testing the spacecraft’s flight software, something that became a sticking point back in June when NASA realized that Psyche stood no chance of being ready in time for its original mid-October 2022 launch date.

Learn more

Cars

Gear

Ram delays its first EV pickup to January

Ram has some catching up to do with electrifying its lineup, but it just teased its Ram 1500 Revolution that will debut in January at CES 2023. The all-electric pickup truck was originally scheduled to make its first public appearance later this month at the Los Angeles Auto Show. For now, we have this teaser image of the highly anticipated EV and thoughts on what it will need to compete.

It’s not Ram’s first electric vehicle since that honor will go to its ProMaster van, but the Ram 1500 Revolution will be the automaker’s first all-electric pickup truck. Ram didn’t reveal any vehicle specs yet, but says the pickup truck will lead in range, towing, payload, and charge time compared to the competition.

Take a closer look

Meanwhile...

SpaceX Falcon Heavy launches on a secretive U.S. government mission

Solar Orbiter captures spectacular video of the Sun

'Mandalorian' Season 3 release date and trailer launch allegedly revealed

You need to watch Tom Hardy's most underrated sci-fi movie on HBO Max

Today in history: The first resident crew arrived at the International Space Station November 2, 2000.

Song of the day: "Lift Me Up." Rihanna

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🦠 Scientists create a potent flu vaccine that could last years

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