The University of Texas Lab that’s Saved Millions of Lives

Imagine if you get your COVID-19 vaccine through a patch. No needles or syringes. And the patch stays stable at room temperature for months making it easier to ship to low and middle income nations. This is the future of COVID vaccine research and some of the best work in the world is being done inside a lab at the University of Texas at Austin. Their interest piqued, the Jasons called up lead scientist Dr. Jason McLellan, whose work has been integral to all of the leading vaccines against COVID. But it’s where this field is headed that’s truly exciting. They’re trying to figure out a way to go from a genome sequence of a virus to manufactured vaccine in only 100 days. That would be three months, instead of the already historically fast ten months it took to manufacture the COVID vaccines. And even that speedy timeline was only made possible through the work of McLellan and his team. In this episode of Y’all-itics, you’ll hear the stories behind the work that’s saved millions of lives across the globe. And wait until you hear why McLellan’s bid to develop a universal coronavirus vaccine was rejected… FIVE years ago.

Guest

Dr. Jason McLellan, Scientist/University of Texas Professor