This is obviously a difficult thing to do. Seasonal flu vaccines are designed to protect against a virus that constantly mutates and recombines in animals. The efficacy of these seasonal vaccines are quite low; ranging from about 15 to 60 percent. Instead of making vaccines that protect against only a few circulating strains of the virus, Centivax is trying to teach the immune system to recognize parts of the virus that many strains share and that resist mutation. The hope is that antibodies targeting these regions could protect even against strains we haven't encountered yet, without scientists having to reformulate the vaccine every year. And things seem to be going well: the company has tested the vaccine in about 180 people so far and is preparing for a Phase 2 trial. This is probably the most ambitious technical interview I've ever done. We cover some extremely deep immunology, but Jake patiently explained the ideas, and I left feeling like I finally understood how vaccines...
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