From mutations to vaccines
Over a million DNAs are sequenced every year in the world, which allows a deeper and more rapid understanding of the genetic heritage of living beings and therefore of diseases and their evolution. “The technology conceived by the award winners has played a key role in discovery of the coronavirus sequence, which in turn has allowed the development of vaccines and the identification of new variants of the virus “, explained Maria Makarow, president of the Technology Academy Finland, who also underlined the importance of research collaboration scientific.
This is the first time that the award has been awarded to two people. Parallel sequencing, which offers an effective methodology for studying and identifying novel strains of coronaviruses and other pathogens, has been employed during the current pandemic for monitoring and the analysis of the new mutations of the virus that are emerging all over the world. The technique has also contributed to the development of several vaccines currently used in the global immunization campaign and will continue to play a fundamental role in the creation of vaccines capable of protecting the population from new viral strains, but not only: the results of genomic sequencing will contribute to averting possible pandemics in the future.
How does it work
The technology also allows scientists and researchers to identify the underlying factors that regulate the immune response in individuals once infected to find an explanation for why some people have a worse immune response.
The parallel sequencing method involves fragmentation of the DNA sample into smaller units, which are then immobilized on the surface of a plate and amplified. Each fragment is decoded on the plate, base by base, using fluorescently colored nucleotides that are added to the sequence by an enzyme. To determine the DNA sequence of each fragment it is then necessary to use a device capable of identifying the position of the colored and fluorescent nucleotides present on the plate and repeat this process hundreds of times.
The collected data are analyzed using sophisticated software capable of recomposing the entire genomic sequence starting from the sequences of all the fragments. In the joint declaration issued following the awarding of the prize, Shankar Balasubramanian and David Klenerman comment on the achievement: «We are happy and honored to be the tenth winners of the Millennium Technology Prize -, they declared -. This award represents the first international recognition received by both and celebrates not only our contribution to the development of technology, but also that of the entire team that worked on the project ».