Timeline for Can immunity be reverse-engineered simply by using a blood or tissue sample?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
12 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jun 28, 2019 at 13:10 | vote | accept | cal | ||
| Jun 26, 2019 at 12:39 | comment | added | Erik A | Human-human hybridomas are pretty difficult things with many variables. You essentially need to merge your subject's cells with tumor cells of a different subject, while keeping the cells viable and producing antibodies, select out the cells producing the desired antibodies, culture them, then transplant them to animals while keeping them alive, and then harvest the antibodies produced by the animals. Many points of failure (and potential drama), and keeping your subject alive, happy and willing to undergo extra surgery might be a good thing | |
| Jun 26, 2019 at 12:39 | comment | added | cal | Wow that was fast. In other words, the subject's presence allows second attempts. | |
| Jun 26, 2019 at 12:36 | comment | added | Erik A | [1/2] If you go for the hybridoma thing, there are many, many difficulties one can encounter creating one. Say they try it first on blood, then fail, and then want a spleen biopsy for higher B-cell counts, that's not very hand-wavy and they'd need to operate your subject for that. They can, of course, use all the material taken, and still fail at making a proper hybridoma thus needing to take another biopsy. | |
| Jun 26, 2019 at 12:30 | comment | added | cal | Okay, cool. I'm actually trying to move the plot so that the subject would be needed (not just a sample, in other words). Do you know of a situation in which this could be scientifically feasible, without too much hand-waiving? | |
| Jun 26, 2019 at 6:32 | comment | added | Erik A | @cal Not really, but it would open up the possibility of creating a human hybridoma, an antibody-secreting tumor that can be transplanted in animals for large-scale antibody production. Wikipedia has an overview on the basics for mouse hybridomas. A similar technology exists for human hybridomas. This is not reverse-engineering the vaccine, but only allows us to create antibodies (passive vaccines). Depending on the technique used, a spleen sample, bone marrow sample or even blood sample might also be sufficient for creation of a hybridoma. | |
| Jun 26, 2019 at 2:48 | comment | added | cal | Thanks for the info, Erik A. Your answer (and some ensuing reading) has definitely confirmed my suspicions that the science is pretty complicated. May I ask -- given the scenario described in my question, would reverse-engineering be more feasible if the subject was available, or if she just supplied a blood sample? | |
| Jun 25, 2019 at 16:56 | history | edited | Erik A | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Jun 25, 2019 at 16:45 | history | edited | Erik A | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Jun 25, 2019 at 14:34 | history | edited | Erik A | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Jun 25, 2019 at 14:26 | history | edited | Erik A | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Jun 25, 2019 at 14:10 | history | answered | Erik A | CC BY-SA 4.0 |