Season 3

Episodes 20 and 21 - Carbohydrate-Based Vaccines - ft. Prof. Dr. Peter Seeberger

Episode 19	Episodes list	Episode 22

In the first half of the episode, Bea talks to Prof. Dr. Peter Seeberger, a managing director at the Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces, about carbohydrate-based vaccines. Peter talks about how the research he has done for the past 27 years led to the development of a tool for the automated synthesis of carbohydrates. He talks about creating the synthesizer even when people did not believe that it could be possible, and explains how the synthesizer can be used in a variety of chemical fields, for example, in creating synthetic carbohydrate-based vaccines.
Peter explains the history of vaccines, talks about their development and how it has changed through the years, and also discusses the future of the field of vaccines, both with regard to the design of synthetic vaccines and the growing animal market. Peter also talks about the spin-off companies and currently used vaccines that the research in his laboratory has resulted in.

In the second half of the episode, Bea continues her conversation with Prof. Dr Peter Seeberger, a managing director at the Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces, about carbohydrate-based vaccines. They talk about the current vaccine market and its future potential, the traditional field of vaccinology, and the obstacles one faces when trying to introduce change to an established product market. Peter talks about developing antibodies and using them in creating cancer vaccines, and the different tasks involved in designing the vaccines for treatment and prevention, i.e. for cancer patients versus for the general population. Peter talks more about the companies that have been founded by his lab, about the successes, the failures, the lessons learned along the way, and the opportunities that such start-ups offer to make new tools available for a larger population and to expand a research field. Peter and Bea also discuss how recent years have shown the fundamental importance of chemistry in all areas of our lives.
Learn more about Prof. Dr. Seeberger's lab and research here and Personal website

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