Derek Thompson

And the patients with the stronger immune response tended to stay cancer-free for longer, which suggests that something is working. But maybe that something is the vaccine, and maybe that something is not the vaccine. We don't know for sure without an RCT.

How in your research did you attempt to control for the possibility that the signal you were picking up on wasn't the effectiveness of the cancer vaccine at all, but rather just an underlying fact of the responder group having much stronger immune systems?

How in your research did you attempt to control for the possibility that the signal you were picking up on wasn't the effectiveness of the cancer vaccine at all, but rather just an underlying fact of the responder group having much stronger immune systems?

How in your research did you attempt to control for the possibility that the signal you were picking up on wasn't the effectiveness of the cancer vaccine at all, but rather just an underlying fact of the responder group having much stronger immune systems?

Vaccines are an ancient technology. Edward Jenner invented, so to speak, discovered the first vaccine in the 1790s against smallpox. Cancer is very old, hundreds, thousands of years old. What makes this moment in personalized cancer vaccines so exciting for you?

Vaccines are an ancient technology. Edward Jenner invented, so to speak, discovered the first vaccine in the 1790s against smallpox. Cancer is very old, hundreds, thousands of years old. What makes this moment in personalized cancer vaccines so exciting for you?

Vaccines are an ancient technology. Edward Jenner invented, so to speak, discovered the first vaccine in the 1790s against smallpox. Cancer is very old, hundreds, thousands of years old. What makes this moment in personalized cancer vaccines so exciting for you?

Thank you for that breakdown. So what you've described are four pillars that in a way are four barriers to building a cancer vaccine. One, make the cancer visible to the immune system. Two, a vaccine platform, in this case, RNA. Three, target the right T cells, and finally figure out the patients who can mount an effective response. What does the frontier here look like?

Thank you for that breakdown. So what you've described are four pillars that in a way are four barriers to building a cancer vaccine. One, make the cancer visible to the immune system. Two, a vaccine platform, in this case, RNA. Three, target the right T cells, and finally figure out the patients who can mount an effective response. What does the frontier here look like?

Thank you for that breakdown. So what you've described are four pillars that in a way are four barriers to building a cancer vaccine. One, make the cancer visible to the immune system. Two, a vaccine platform, in this case, RNA. Three, target the right T cells, and finally figure out the patients who can mount an effective response. What does the frontier here look like?

What's the next challenge that you're trying to solve for?

What's the next challenge that you're trying to solve for?

What's the next challenge that you're trying to solve for?

And you, Vinod, what are you personally most excited for in the world of cancer vaccines?

And you, Vinod, what are you personally most excited for in the world of cancer vaccines?

And you, Vinod, what are you personally most excited for in the world of cancer vaccines?

Vinod Balachandran, thank you so much.

Vinod Balachandran, thank you so much.

Vinod Balachandran, thank you so much.

Many thanks to Vinod Balachandran. One thing I'm taking away from this episode is this concept of immunological invisibility. This idea that cancer is so deadly in part because of how it disguises itself from our immune system. And therefore, one job of cancer vaccines is to make cancer's proteins revisible to the immune system, to teach our T cells and our bodies to recognize