Dr. Lexi Walls is a biochemist, not a prophet—though, admittedly, it can sometimes be hard to tell the difference.

Six years ago, when Lexi started researching coronaviruses, they were an understudied and poorly understood class of viruses. When Lexi wrote about the “tremendous pandemic potential of coronaviruses” in December 2019, no one realized that the seeds of the COVID-19 pandemic had already been sown. When Lexi completed her doctoral dissertation that same month on the structure of coronavirus spike proteins, she couldn’t have imagined how large those spike proteins soon would loom in our public consciousness, and in our efforts to develop effective vaccines against COVID-19.

In this episode, Lexi joins Jocelyn and Bradley to share the surreal experience of doing “basic” research that turned out to have swift, profound, and far-reaching applications. She explains how the use of cryo-electron microscopy enabled her to characterize the structure of coronavirus spike proteins in great detail, and why this is so important for understanding how these viruses infect cells, how our immune system recognizes and responds to them, and how the emergence of variants could affect the course of the pandemic. She also explains the differences between mRNA vaccines and vector vaccines, as well as how these compare to more traditional types of vaccines. Finally, Lexi shares exciting news about a COVID vaccine she and her colleagues have developed using synthetic protein nanocages (!), and the friends discuss the future of pan-virus vaccines that might make us better prepared for the next pandemic.

Follow Lexi on Twitter @coronalexington, and learn more about her amazing work at the links below!
https://www.grad.uw.edu/lexi-walls/
https://scienceinseattle.com/2020/03/18/dr-lexi-walls-talks-coronaviruses-and-cryo-em/
https://youtu.be/e1YEyPX-Pqw
The Veesler Lab:
https://faculty.washington.edu/dveesler/
https://twitter.com/veeslerlab
Designed Protein Nanoparticle Vaccine:
https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(20)31450-1

Further Reading:
“Multitude of coronavirus variants found in the US — but the threat is unclear” (Ewen Callaway, Nature): https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00564-4
“What Do Vaccine Efficacy Numbers Actually Mean?” (Carl Zimmer and Keith Collins, The New York Times): https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/03/03/science/vaccine-efficacy-coronavirus.html
“Here’s Why Johnson & Johnson’s Vaccine Only Requires One Dose” (Emily Mullin, Medium): https://coronavirus.medium.com/how-does-johnson-johnsons-vaccine-work-a17524d85edd
“Variant-proof vaccines — invest now for the next pandemic” (Dennis R. Burton and Eric J. Topol, Nature): https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00340-4

“Self-assembly: From Nanowaffles to Nanostructures!”: https://funsizephysics.com/from-nanowaffles-to-nanostructures/

“Forming Nanostructures: Froot Loops, Legos, and Self-assembly”: https://funsizephysics.com/froot-loops-legos-self-assembly/

Related episodes:
What’s so “basic” about basic research? (Discussion): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/12-discussion-whats-so-basic-about-basic-research/id1471423633?i=1000448570255
Everyone Has Herpes (Lisa Poppe): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/8-lisa-poppe-everyone-has-herpes/id1471423633?i=1000446370166
Pandemic: A Letter from the Past (Gregg Mitman): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/40-gregg-mitman-pandemic-a-letter-from-the-past/id1471423633?i=1000470227078
Beyond Bat Soup (Dorothy Tovar): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/44-dorothy-tovar-beyond-bat-soup/id1471423633?i=1000473039535
Hindsight --> Insight --> Foresight (Nidhi Gupta): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/74-nidhi-gupta-hindsight-insight-foresight/id1471423633?i=1000505283002
Big Little Life (Hannah Gavin): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/78-hannah-gavin-big-little-life/id1471423633?i=1000510524624
Go Small or Go Home! (Axel Enders): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/16-axel-enders-go-small-or-go-home/id1471423633?i=1000452081082