Vaccines are essential for combating various diseases, yet there are still a lot of diseases that still need a vaccine. Dan Stinchcomb has been involved with the creation of vaccines for various diseases such as dengue fever, chikungunya, and zika. Stinchcomb highlighted that vaccines are designed to initiate an antibody response to help build immunity to the specific virus. He also mentioned RNA vaccines and how these vaccines are a lot easier to administer than DNA vaccines.
Overall, Dan Stinchcomb’s presentation was interesting and thought-provoking. Viruses are an issue that a lot of people care about because of how detrimental they can be to the human population and how quickly viruses can spread now. The main defense that people have against viruses are immune responses and vaccines are critical when it comes to encouraging the immune response and preventing infection. This seminar relates with what we have learned in class because we had an introduction to viruses and their different replication cycles; basically how viruses work. Knowing the mechanisms behind how viruses attack a person’s immune system can make a vaccine more effective in combating that virus. Something that popped into my mind was how will new technology help with the creation of vaccines? Will they be able to be produced at a faster rate while an epidemic occurs? Will new and more advanced technology lead to a better understanding of rapidly-evolving viruses and create more efficient vaccines?