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Rino Rappuoli, who is the man from GSK, pivot of the government-funded Tls anti Covid foundation

Rino Rappuoli, who is the man from GSK, pivot of the government-funded Tls anti Covid foundation

All the details on the curriculum of Rino Rappuoli, Chief Scientist and Head External R&D of GSK Vaccines in Siena and head of the ERC Advanced Grant OMVac project of the Tls foundation which will be funded by the government

If there is anyone who can find a cure for Covid in Italy it is Rino Rappuoli . Or at least the executive hopes, which has decided to finance the non-profit Toscana life sciences-Tls for its research on monoclonal antibodies. Fifty million euros now, 380 in all in favor of the search for an alternative solution to the Oxford vaccine. Not a vain hope, that of the government, which in the meantime has sent on Invitalia controlled by the Mef and led by the CEO, Domenico Arcuri, to support the promising realities that have flourished in Siena, but supported by the incredible curriculum of the Italian scientist who already owes them the first mass immunizations that have almost eliminated the cases of diphtheria, bacterial meningitis and pertussis in advanced countries.

SIENA CAPUT MUNDI AGAINST VIRUSES

Curious that Rappuoli is also from Siena, just like Fabrizio Landi of Tls, born in 1952 (one year older than Landi). With Rappuoli and Landi , and therefore Tls and GlaxoSmithKline-Gsk, Siena returns to be at the forefront in the fight against pandemics, whether due to viruses or bacilli. The challenge to Covid actually comes from the city which, in the first half of the fourteenth century, was the undisputed power of the continent and began the construction of the most imposing cathedral in the world to prove it to everyone. Construction interrupted however in 1348, when the plague knocked on the doors of Siena. In a few months the city lost over two thirds of its population and disappeared forever from the international scene. He no longer had reason to complete such a majestic work: the transept of what should have become the most monumental cathedral of the time was recycled and became “the cathedral”, still visibly incomplete today. It may be this ancient link with pandemics that has allowed the city to give birth to so many scientists engaged in the fight against microbes and viruses. Rappuoli began his career at a very young age, just graduated, at the age of 26, entering as a researcher at the Sclavo di Siena, a vaccine manufacturer. In just 14 years, in 1992, he had already become research director of the company which, in those same years, was acquired by the American Chiron Corp.

WHO IS RINO RAPPUOLI

Discoverer of the vaccine against meningococcus B and C and that against pertussis, Rino Rappuoli probably won't say much to the general public, because he has always preferred laboratory slides to international showcases, but he is one of the most cited microbiologists in textbooks and in research to the world. In short, a real luminary. In the midst of the H1N1 virus pandemic, he wrote the book "Vaccines of the global era".

HUMANITARIAN COMMITMENT AND NOW THE FIGHT AGAINST COVID

To support vaccinations in poor, resource-poor countries, he founded the Novartis Vaccines Institute for Global Health, a non-profit organization that develops vaccines for developing countries. But now he is the man at the front in the war against Covid-19: "We are among the first groups in the world to have arrived at this point, and we have an antibody 90% more powerful than those identified by other researchers", he recently declared Rino Rappuoli to Repubblica . Anyone wishing to know more about study treatment and is not afraid of English can learn more by watching this video .

WHAT GSK AND TLS DO

«It is very interesting what we do here – Rino Rappuoli told the newspaper directed by Maurizio Molinari – we have about ten people, including newly graduated students, who are doing competitive things with the best research groups in the world. We show that even in Italy certain objectives can be achieved, that our young people do not have to go out to assert themselves and are indeed forced to go back if they are abroad ». Gsk Italia, with 1.8 billion euros in turnover, continues to grow and represent a world reference point. Only last year GSK had decided to bet on the Italian branch (which alone in 2018 distributed 47 million doses of vaccines, exported to 54 countries), perhaps thanks to the presence of Rappuoli , writing a check for 40 million euro and inaugurating a new structure of 8,700 square meters, equipped with 500 workstations (of which 300 in the laboratory) for the clinical development of vaccines and their distribution.

THE IDEA OF “BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS” AGAINST COVID

It is to Rino Rappuoli , coordinator of the Mad Lab (Monoclonal Antibody Discovery) which is made up of just 11 "super scientists" of Toscana Life Sciences, in Siena, as well as chief scientist and head external R&D of GlaxoSmithKline – Gsk Vaccines, who dived the intuition of using "biological weapons that fight the virus", as he had told the Corriere some time ago (see the Adnkronos agency for more information). «We have identified 450 antibodies capable of neutralizing the Coronavirus, but most of them have a limited effect so once the drug is obtained, it would be necessary to resort to very high doses to treat the positives, intravenously. The super powerful antibodies (to understand each other, a thousand times more than the average of the others) are able to defeat Sars-CoV-2 even if administered in small quantities, with a simple subcutaneous injection. Our goal now is to produce a drug, from the best of these three antibodies, that can cure coronavirus-positive patients in a few days, with a 1-milliliter dose that can also be taken at home ".

"ADDITIONAL DRUG TO THE VACCINE"

The last public appearance of Rino Rappuoli , the man of the moment, only a few days ago: he gave a talk to the Rotary Club Siena Est, of which he is an honorary member. "The drug – explained the professor to those present – will be complementary to the vaccine, which needs about 45 days to guarantee protection from when it is administered". A few years ago Rappuoli was awarded the European Inventor Award for Lifetime Achievement, an award that the Epo (the European Patent Office) assigns to the best innovations.

THE ENEMY OF SCIENCE? THE BUROCRACY

"I have spent most of my life working in corporate research centers, so I have been able to overcome bureaucratic obstacles and turn discoveries into real products that can impact people," the microbiologist said in an old interview. Now, however, with Covid-19, the paradigm seems to be subverted and the bureaucracy seems to have put itself at the service of research.

DISCOVERIES IN THE SCIENTIFIC FIELD

According to an important reference site for professionals in the sector, Biotecnologia.it , Rino Rappuoli has "revolutionized the known techniques of vaccine production twice, applying the discoveries of biotechnology, allowing otherwise impossible results and a significant reduction in the times of Research". In fact, "it was Rino Rappuoli 's working group at Chiron in Siena that created (and marketed in 1993) the first 'acellular' vaccine in the world, against pertussis, produced by recombinant DNA techniques". And, again, «in 1998, he further perfected the contribution of biotechnology to the production of vaccines. Starting from the mapping of the genome (not of the human one, but of the microorganisms from which we want to protect ourselves), he invented a technique, known as “reverse vaccinology”, which consists in the creation of a vaccine through an inverse path to the traditional one ».

THE MAN WHO REVOLUTIONIZED THE PASTEUR PROCESS

In short, until the intervention of Rino Rappuoli with his hybrids created in the laboratory that contain proteins and part of the DNA of the bacterium, the process followed for a century the concept adopted by Louis Pasteur around 1880: doctors injected "attenuated" versions or "inactivate" the pathogen, allowing the immune system to recognize it and prepare a defense. You will therefore understand well the revolutionary significance of his studies. And why, if there is a man to be deployed in the vanguard in the fight against Covid, that is him.


This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/rino-rappuoli-chi-e-luomo-di-gsk-perno-della-fondazione-tls-anti-covid-finanziata-dal-governo/ on Fri, 18 Sep 2020 13:10:58 +0000.