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cover of episode How to Fight Bird Flu If It Becomes the Next Human Pandemic (Part 3)

How to Fight Bird Flu If It Becomes the Next Human Pandemic (Part 3)

2025/6/27
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Science Quickly
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People
A
Adolfo Garcia Sastre
A
Ahmed
A
Ahmed El-Sayed
A
Amesh Adalja
F
Florian Kramer
J
Jennifer Nuzzo
L
Luis Martinez Sobrido
N
Naeem Amarsi
P
Peter Palese
R
Ramya Smetavani Bahre
S
Shira Doron
Topics
Naeem Amarsi: 我参观了德克萨斯生物医学研究所，亲身了解科学家们如何严谨地进行H5N1疫苗的研发工作。从穿戴多层防护服进入BSL-3实验室，到观察疫苗病毒在鸡蛋中的培养过程，每一个环节都让我深刻体会到科学家们在应对潜在疫情威胁时所付出的努力。我希望通过我的报道，能够让公众更加了解疫苗研发的复杂性和重要性，从而更好地支持和配合疫情防控工作。 Luis Martinez Sobrido: 作为一名病毒学家，我的工作重点是利用反向遗传学方法生成重组病毒，用于研究H5N1的特性和开发疫苗。我们实验室的特色在于能够创建不感染人类但在鸡蛋中生长良好的疫苗病毒种子。这些病毒种子是生产H5N1疫苗的关键，它们可以帮助人体产生抗体，从而预防感染。我深知疫苗在应对疫情中的重要作用，因此我会尽我所能，为保护公众健康贡献力量。 Ahmed El-Sayed: 在BSL-3实验室工作需要极其严格的防护措施，每次进入实验室前，我们都必须仔细检查防护服，确保没有丝毫漏洞。我每天的工作包括在鸡蛋中培养病毒，并提取含有病毒的尿囊液。这个过程需要高度的耐心和细致，因为稍有不慎就可能导致病毒泄漏。我始终牢记安全第一的原则，尽最大努力确保实验过程的安全性。 Ramya Smetavani Bahre: 我的主要工作是在鸡蛋上进行病毒注射。我需要先在鸡蛋上打一个小孔，然后将疫苗病毒注入到尿囊液中。这个过程看似简单，但实际上需要非常精确的操作，以避免损伤胚胎。我会认真对待每一个细节，确保病毒能够顺利繁殖，为疫苗的生产提供充足的原料。我为自己能够参与到疫苗研发工作中感到自豪。 Amesh Adalja: 疫苗是应对潜在禽流感大流行的首要防线。然而，我们目前的疫苗生产系统面临着一些挑战，例如鸡蛋培养疫苗的生产周期较长，容易导致疫苗与流行毒株不匹配。此外，鸡蛋培养过程还可能导致病毒变异，降低疫苗的疗效。因此，我建议加大对细胞疫苗和mRNA疫苗等新型疫苗技术的研发投入，以提高疫苗的生产效率和有效性。同时，我们也需要加强疫苗储备，确保在疫情爆发时能够迅速为高危人群提供疫苗。

Deep Dive

Shownotes Transcript

Creating a bird flu vaccine requires several layers of bioprotective clothing and typically a whole lot of eggs. H5N1 avian influenza infections have gone from flocks of chickens to herds of cattle and humans. Scientists at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute are taking their best guess at the strains of the virus that could spread and are creating critical vaccine candidates.

Multimedia journalist and Scientific American multimedia intern Naeem Amarsy suited up and went to San Antonio, Tex., to visit a “biosafety level three” (BSL-3) lab at the institute. 

This is the third and final episode of our series about bird flu.

You can listen to episode one:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/how-h5n1-went-from-an-illness-in-wild-birds-to-a-global-pandemic-threat/) 

And episode two:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/how-bird-flu-went-from-devastating-poultry-farms-to-infecting-dairy-herds/) 

And read more of our health coverage:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/health/) 

E-mail us at [email protected]) if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover!

Discover something new every day: subscribe) to Scientific American and sign up) for Today in Science, our daily newsletter. 

Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Naeem Amarsy and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted and reported by Naeem Amarsy. This series was reported and produced by Lauren Young, Meghan Bartels, Fonda Mwangi and Jeff DelViscio. Special thanks to Laura Petersen and Catie Corcoran at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute, Jane Deng and Elizabeth Dowling at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Kimberly Lau, Dean Visser and Jeanna Bryner at Scientific American. Our show is edited by Alex Sugiura with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.

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