Vaccines lecture

2 December 2009

winter3Today I lectured on viral vaccines in the Immunology course at the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University. I used poliovirus and influenza virus vaccines to illustrate general principles of immunization.

My thanks to the engaged students who asked excellent questions!

Here is a video of my lecture. Thanks to ScreenFlow, I was able to record my audio along with the slides and post it here the same day. Next semester I’ll be teaching a new undergraduate virology course at Columbia University, and I plan to upload similar videos of each lecture – 26 in all. I’ll post more information here about that course in early 2010.


Download ‘Vaccines’ video.

67 MB .mov video file

247 MB .wmv video file

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  • JLM

    Outstanding, I really enjoyed this!

  • JLM

    Outstanding, I really enjoyed this!

  • PP

    Hello,

    Just one question regarding this course: you say that the inactivated polio vaccine doesn't prevent infection but prevents the virus from entering the bloodstream – since the vaccine is parenteral and thus doesn't elicit mucosal antibodies.

    You say that as a consequence immunized people may be infected with polio and shed viruses while not developing a disease.

    Can I take it that maybe the same holds true for influenza vaccines?

    Is it possible to be infected with the influenza virus and shed viruses in spite of an effective immunization?

  • PP

    Just realized the influenza virus doesn't enter the bloodstream anyway (with some exceptions if I recall).

    But then, how come an inactivated parenteral vaccine can prevent an infection with influenza but not polio?

    This is a little bit confusing.

    Maybe it has to do with differences between the digestive and respiratory tracts?

  • LAS

    I love checking out your lectures Vince, but I'm a little worried that they'll make me superfluous when I teach this spring!

  • Teeny

    Thank you for sharing. It is most appreciated by this undergraduate student!

  • jonj

    These will be great. I have enjoyed some of your lectures and notes which you have included as part of your online Virology #101

  • http://www.virology.ws profvrr

    This is an excellent question. As I said during the lecture, no one has ever asked me why the influenza vaccine, which is injected, prevents a respiratory infection. And you are right, influenza does not establish a viremia. I plan to write a post on this issue next week.

  • mihailoz

    First of all, I would like to say that this video made me very interested in virology. So much so, that you have made a highschool student learn something during his winter break. Last night before I went to sleep, I was thinking about what I learned from the video, and I wondered: can we manipulate vaccines and viruses to cure cancer? From what I heard, cancer is an abnormal growth of cells, so is it possible to create a ” weakened live viruses” that can destroy the cancer? Perhaps I am being a bit too ideological, or misinformed, but can you please tell me if such a method is possible?

  • http://www.virology.ws profvrr

    Your idea is quite correct: a number of groups are trying to destroy
    cancers using attenuated (weakened) viruses. The idea is to find
    viruses that will destroy cancer cells and not normal cells in the
    body. There have been a number of reasonably successful attempts using
    several different viruses. We plan to have a podcast on this topic
    within the next few months (twiv.tv).

  • mihailoz

    That sounds awesome! By the way, I am planning on doing a project analyzing information from free influenza virus databases to determine the effectiveness of various flu vaccines, and I started reading around CDC's website, but I would like to know if you can recommend some episodes that you have posted which may help me learn more about this topic?

  • mihailoz

    First of all, I would like to say that this video made me very interested in virology. So much so, that you have made a highschool student learn something during his winter break. Last night before I went to sleep, I was thinking about what I learned from the video, and I wondered: can we manipulate vaccines and viruses to cure cancer? From what I heard, cancer is an abnormal growth of cells, so is it possible to create a ” weakened live viruses” that can destroy the cancer? Perhaps I am being a bit too ideological, or misinformed, but can you please tell me if such a method is possible?

  • http://www.virology.ws profvrr

    Your idea is quite correct: a number of groups are trying to destroy
    cancers using attenuated (weakened) viruses. The idea is to find
    viruses that will destroy cancer cells and not normal cells in the
    body. There have been a number of reasonably successful attempts using
    several different viruses. We plan to have a podcast on this topic
    within the next few months (twiv.tv).

  • mihailoz

    That sounds awesome! By the way, I am planning on doing a project analyzing information from free influenza virus databases to determine the effectiveness of various flu vaccines, and I started reading around CDC's website, but I would like to know if you can recommend some episodes that you have posted which may help me learn more about this topic?

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