Olga Palmer (left) and Ngarangi Mason analyse cells from vaccinated mice. Photo: Supplied
- NZ mRNA lab develops more than 500 vaccines in just two years.
- Covid was the "push" needed to develop local mRNA capability.
- US funding cuts make local research more important, says scientist.
- Safe and effective mRNA technology could also target cancer, autoimmune conditions, and rare diseases.
The United States government's decision to strip half a billion dollars (NZ$1.7b) from mRNA vaccine programmes makes New Zealand's own research even more critical, according to a scientist at the forefront of this work.
"We're talking about potentially dire consequences for the world": that is the blunt assessment of Dr Lisa Connor, head of the Infection and Vaccinology Group at the Malaghan Institute.
"What's going in the States is really frightening, and it's going to have a massive impact, taking away that really important funding.
"That was funding research that people were doing before the pandemic, which was what we needed to respond to Covid so quickly.
"That protection is gone, so if we come up against a completely foreign pathogen in the next year, or even another influenza, we're going to be really vulnerable."
500 vaccines in two years
Fortunately, New Zealand now has the capacity to develop home-grown vaccines, through the mRNA Platform, which has received $70m in government funding.
Two years into its seven-year programme, it has already developed more than 500 different vaccines for everything from influenza to bovine viral diarrhoea - all produced by the Connor Laboratory, hosted at Victoria University.
Lisa Connor. Photo: Supplied / Malaghan Institute of Medical Research
"The team here are currently making the mRNA vaccines in this lab, which go to all sorts of research institutes around New Zealand. So this is the core in terms of mRNA."
Through the double doors, inside the glass box of the laboratory, white-coated scientists are busily engaged with test tubes, petri dishes and flow cytometers.
A bank of ultra-cold freezers - marked "Beware! Frostbite" - store the fragile mRNA vaccines at temperatures as low as -80 degrees Celsius.
Dr Connor, a molecular immunologist, said scientists had been working on mRNA vaccines for years, but as soon as they entered the body they would get destroyed.
"It's a really delicate string of nucleic acids."
The big breakthrough was coating the nucleic acids in a protective "bubble" of lipids.
Luckily, this breakthrough came just as Covid-19 appeared, allowing scientists in the United States and Europe to quickly roll out mRNA vaccines.
Emma Lamb works on a new mRNA vaccine. Photo: Supplied
Dr Connor and her team had already developed a Covid vaccine, Kiwi Vax - work that began before there were any vaccines available globally - and were able to use the new technology to create a mRNA version.
"We quickly saw the success of this vaccine - how effective it was and how fast the technology moves and allows us to respond so quickly to a pandemic.
"That really pushed us to making this capability in New Zealand."
The lab got Kiwi Vax to the point at which it could go to clinical trials - and it has given them a template for making human vaccines in this country, working with Timaru-based bio-tech manufacturer South Pacific Sera.
Beyond vaccines to protect against infectious pathogens, mRNA technology is also being used to create treatments for cancer, autoimmune conditions, and rare diseases.
"Some diseases involve deficiencies in making proteins, so you can use mRNA and tell your body 'Please make this'."
While US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a vaccine sceptic, claimed mRNA technology "poses more risks than benefits" for respiratory viruses, the products had proved very safe, Connor said.
"Once the body has read the recipe, the recipe over time disappears. So it actually has a really short half-life in our bodies."
Vaccines that work for NZers
By developing mRNA manufacturing capability here, New Zealand could cover its own people and its Pacific neighbours in a pandemic, Connor said.
"It also means we can look at things that don't really interest global pharmaceutical companies, like staph infections, which are a big problem in New Zealand.
"And we can make vaccines that better match our population, which work for Māori and Pacific people."
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