The author said he is going to try to do measurements to the best of what is easily possible:
> So, we’ll do (up to) two more blood tests. The first will be two weeks after our third (weekly) dose; that one is the “optimistic” test, in case three doses is more-than-enough already. That one is optimistic for another reason as well: synthesis/delivery of three of the nine peptides was delayed, so our first three doses will only use six of them. If the optimistic test comes back positive, great, we’re done.
> If that test comes back negative, then the next test will be the “more dakka” test. We’ll add the other three peptides, take another few weeks of boosters, maybe adjust frequency and/or dosage - we’ll consider exactly what changes to make if and when the optimistic test comes back negative. Risks are very minimal (again, see the paper), so throwing more dakka at it makes sense.
> Consider this a pre-registration. I intend to share my test results here.
Pre-registration for this kind of thing seems pretty good, and I am looking forward to seeing the results.
I've taken a whopping one class about immunology, so I'm not even remotely qualified. But maybe I'm just qualified enough to call this nonsense.
The author is planning to take a "test". What test? The standard lab tests are some proprietary qualitative test looking for antibodies to a specific synthetic antigen. For a (new, untested!) vaccine, this is a dubious experiment at best. The vaccine could produce an amazing antibody response that doesn't trigger the test, or it could produce a tiny, useless response that happens to trigger the test. And the test is unlikely to give numbers.
But this vaccine is using short-ish peptides. There are two (at least? I think just two) different types of T-cell receptor, and they are sensitive to different lengths of peptide. Testing for those is complicated and expensive.
I don't know how one would find a lab to do the relevant tests, but it's probably not so easy.
And yet he titled the post "Making Vaccine". Unless you make it all the way through to the end, you might assume that he actually did make a vaccine -- and judging by the comments on HN, it looks like some people are assuming this. It all seems a bit... irresponsible?
> So, we’ll do (up to) two more blood tests. The first will be two weeks after our third (weekly) dose; that one is the “optimistic” test, in case three doses is more-than-enough already. That one is optimistic for another reason as well: synthesis/delivery of three of the nine peptides was delayed, so our first three doses will only use six of them. If the optimistic test comes back positive, great, we’re done.
> If that test comes back negative, then the next test will be the “more dakka” test. We’ll add the other three peptides, take another few weeks of boosters, maybe adjust frequency and/or dosage - we’ll consider exactly what changes to make if and when the optimistic test comes back negative. Risks are very minimal (again, see the paper), so throwing more dakka at it makes sense.
> Consider this a pre-registration. I intend to share my test results here.
Pre-registration for this kind of thing seems pretty good, and I am looking forward to seeing the results.