Member Info for RayPointer

This also is an interesting read

https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/09/09/for-an-effective-covid-vaccine-look-beyond-antibodies-to-t-cells/

I recommend reading the whole article but I have picked out 2 paragraphs relevant to Covidity and vaccines in general:

"This was noted in people infected by the first SARS virus, SARS-CoV-1, in 2003. SARS patients who subsequently died had higher antibody levels during acute infection and worse clinical lung injury compared to SARS patients who went on to recover. In MERS, which is also a coronavirus infection, survivors with higher antibody levels experienced longer intensive care unit stays and required more ventilator support, compared to subjects with no detectable antibodies.

In contrast, strong T-cell levels in SARS and MERS patients correlated with better outcomes. The same has also played out, so far, in COVID-19 patients."

“They (the T-cells) are a kind of adult stem cell, sitting silently in very small numbers for years or decades, but when they see viral antigen they go wild — divide like crazy, put out cytokines and do other things that help to neutralize the virus,” he said. “They are like seasoned old soldiers resting quietly in the field, ready to explode into action at the first sign of trouble.”

Somebody thinking like Lindy but perhaps without a platform like IB to help.

It will be interesting how they intend to run the AGM and what software.
I have just come off a meeting with 50+ people on Microsoft Teams.
I am in Italy with my Laptop tethered to my phone and got great reception on a Q and A session.

https://paintnumbershop.com/products/the-sistine-chapel-ceiling-michelangelo-5d-diy-paint-by-number-kit

This is how Michaelangelo did it.

Personally I think the deal will go through but in a real world timescale rather than a CH timescale.
CH timescales have always been best case scenario.

The deal is in the area of personalised vaccines that we know Lindy is not keen on.
Very expensive and time consuming.
Remember the project that Genentech and BionTech were involved in to find cancer targets that drew a blank. IMO this is why both companies are now concentrating on personalised vaccines.
But we do also know for a fact that both Genentech (Ira Mellman) and Biontech (Ugur Sahin) are interested in the Moditope targets. Scancell's strategy has been to prove the targets in clinical trials before considering deals.
As for IB, the strategy is the same albeit now based on trials in combination with a CI.

So IMO it is not a case of being the bridesmaid but saving yourself until you have developed an irresistible attractiveness to a very rich man :-)

It's like reading a book with half of the pages missing :-)

Oh, lets not forget the BionTech collaboration.
Last AGM Lindy said something about timescales but nobody managed to catch what she said.
It may be that Scancell have now done their part and the ball is in Biontech's court for evaluation.

Evening AB
I'm not sure whether Scancell have said whether Covidity is on a not-for -profit basis. So yes, it would be useful if we had that info if a decision has been made.

The AGM normally follows the following pattern
a) John Chiplin (chairman) kicks off with resolutions
b) Cliff (CEO) then gives a summary of all projects, collaborations, deals (we hope) and finance
c) Sally Adams (development director) then gives details of development which will probably be centred on Modi1, SCIB1 combo and maybe info on SCIB2 combo
d) Lindy then gives a presentation on the latest research and I expect her to concentrate on Covidity but we may get an update on Modi2
e) Q and A - a certain poster from advfn may have a word or two and this may waste time
f) Virtual tea and coffee

only one

These days you might be the one one on the flight Ruck.
You might be asked to sit in the aisle :-)

I would imagine that Lindy's main topic will be Covidity.

Yes, and you always get more detail at the AGM, especially from Sally and Lindy.
This year Cliff's summary may also be of interest.

"A Maximum Tolerated Dose has not been determined for VAL201, and all doses remain available for further testing."

Still at phase 1?

Now this is an exciting sport

https://calendarcustoms.com/articles/world-black-pudding-throwing-championships/

I've just been looking at pictures of the island on google maps. Now if they had decent weather, I'd buy a house there in a shot.

Surely there is no problem social distancing at the World skimming championships.
A bit like a Hartlepool home game I would say :-)

Here's a nice little article on Amino acids, the building blocks of proteins.

https://www.technologynetworks.com/applied-sciences/articles/essential-amino-acids-chart-abbreviations-and-structure-324357

Burble referred to the amino acids as sausages. Well there are 20 types of sausages (Amino acids) in the human body.
An epitope is a particular sequence of these sausage types (Amino acids) that Lindy is trying to target. A particular epitope comprises around 5 to 15 of these sausages in an exact sequence. As you can imagine there are literally millions of different epitopes so it is really hard to find an epitope that:

a) is common on your target protein
b) is rare on healthy cells
c) is immunogenic i.e. responds well to the immune system

In the case of Moditope, Lindy discovered that 2 particular Amino acids (i.e. Arginine and Glycine) can be modified slightly under certain stressful conditions. This modification is termed citrullination in the case of arginine and homocitrullination in the case of glycine. Lindy further discovered that cancer has citrullinated and homocitrullinated epitopes in abundance on cancer cells. At the last count I recall she had found 30 different epitopes.
So she created a vaccine to target 3 of the citrullinated epitopes, 2 on a protein called Vimentin and 1 on a protein called Enolase. This is Modi1 which is due to start a clinical trial in H1 2021 (we hope). This is planned to target 4 hard to treat cancers for patients where it is pretty much the last chance saloon.
If it works and works well then you can imagine how this will change the world of oncology.

Modi2 is designed to target homocitrullinated epitopes and is currently being researched. But that is for the future as is a combination of Modi1 and Modi2 and whatever else Lindy discovers in the meantime (and she does tend to make discoveries).

As Inan says it is very early days in thinking about having a vaccine to counter different coronaviruses.
There might even possibly be common epitopes on the S protein that remain the same as Covid19 mutates.
It strikes me that the IB approach is so much more precise than the adenovirus approach. That is just an impression I get.

Thanks Inan

I might be wrong but does this article suggest that it is likely that the same N targets may be present in coronaviruses across different animal species as well as across different coronaviruses from the same animal specie.

Also, these 2 sentences from the article also suggest that the N targets are highly immunogenic

"Thus, the SARS-CoV-2 N gene was safe and highly immunogenic as a DNA vaccine. "
"This revealed a single region to which H-2b-restricted T cells produced both interleukin-2 (IL-2) (data not shown) and gamma interferon (IFN-?) "

Of course, Lindy will be after finding the precise epitopes to target. So not only is there more precision in Lindy's approach but the resultant T Cells have such high avidity.