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O virologista Christopher Buck
“Radically simplified approach to vaccine production” was made at home with ingredients present in the food chain.
A North American researcher has developed a craft beer that triggers an immune response against the BK virusa type of human polyomavirus.
Christopher Buckof the National Cancer Institute, is now one of several scientists who have tested vaccines on themselves.
Around 90% of people develop antibodies to this virus by the age of 10. In individuals with healthy immune systems, it is usually harmless, but in transplant patients, subject to immunosuppression to prevent organ rejection, the virus can reactivate, cause inflammation and contribute to failure of the transplanted organ.
Buck, who works precisely to prevent transplant rejection associated with polyomavirus infections, looked for an innovative way to address the risks of BK in very specific contexts.
The scientist modified brewer’s yeast to produce the protein that coats the virus. When detected by the immune system, this protein can lead to the production of antibodies. The yeast was then incorporated into a hefeweizen wheat beeralong with an infusion of hops.
For four days, the investigator drank between one and two large glasses of beer per dayfollowed by two five-day boosters in the following months. He underwent regular blood tests and claims to have detected no noticeable adverse effects. But the scientist verified the production of antibodies against several strains of the BK polyomavirus.
“The idea is simply to take live yeast, which is responsible for producing beer, and insert a vaccine into it. This way, it is possible to induce the yeast to provoke an immune response”, explains Buck: “It’s a radically simplified approach to vaccine production.”
Buck remembers, however, that this was an experiment with a single participant, himself. And he also left a note: the drink was “one of the best craft beers” he has ever produced.
One of the project’s central theses is that foods produced with this yeast would not be regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as vaccines, as long as they were not marketed as therapies.
Buck argues that the ingredients used in his beer already exist in the food chain and meet the definition of substances “generally recognized as safe” for human consumption. To ensure separation between his professional activity and this initiative, he created the non-profit organization Gusteau Research Corporation, of which he is the only employee. The brother founded Remy LLC to sell food products using genetically modified yeast (both names are a reference to the film Ratatouille).
Buck calls on other scientists to explore whether this model could be adapted to viral threats like bird flu or new variants of Covid-19.
The experiment, having been put into practice by the inventor himself, places Buck among names such as Charles Jules Henri Nicolle (who inoculated himself against typhus), Jonas Salk (who tried his own vaccine against polio) and Albert Sabin (who ingested the oral vaccine he developed against the same disease).
And, more recently, at the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic, recalls , a group of researchers linked to Harvard created and self-administered a “DIY” nasal vaccine before the arrival of the first commercial vaccines.
