What’s it like to work on J&J’s coronavirus vaccine? For one scientist, it’s social distancing in the lab, late nights at home – FiercePharma

Rinke Bos is a scientist. But under the bright spotlight of COVID-19, the Johnson & Johnson immunologist has also become a media spokesperson, an online video cast member and one of the many pharma researchers who symbolize hope for the world.

Bos leads the J&J vaccine discovery team of about a dozen researchers in the small town of Leiden in her native country of the Netherlands. The teamfirst began designing potential vaccines after the full RNA sequence forSARS-CoV-2 was released publiclyin January. They researched options, performed preclinical testing and correcteddesigns to narrow downcandidates.

The team workeddays, nights and weekends in shifts to build and test 10 different vaccine possibilities. At first, they workedtogether in the lab, but later, after social distancing restrictions went into effectin the Netherlands, they switched to remote workwith only one or at most two people allowed in the lab at the same time. That required some shifts in procedures, such as more detailed note-taking,which becamecritical. Missingspecificsin hand-offs between team memberscould create delays no one wanted.

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Then, on March 30, J&J announced the result of the discovery teams worka leadvaccine candidate. At the same time, the pharma companypledged $1 billion in partnership with the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to develop it.

Its the best feeling that maybe we can contribute to developing a vaccine that might prevent people from getting sick. Especially now that it concerns everybody, Bossaid. The whole world needs a vaccine.

Thats mostly exciting, but of course theres also pressure," Bos added. "When your email inbox grows every time you look away from your computer, thats sometimes a bit nerve-wracking. Everybody has questions, and they'realso in a hurry, so you want to answer as fast as possible, she added.

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J&J opened the vaccine facilitywhere Bos works in late 2018 to advance its then-ambitious plans for several viral vaccine programs including HIV, respiratory syncytial virus, Ebola, Zika and a universal flu vaccine. The 72 million sitewith its laboratories andmanufacturing facilitieswas designed to also support large-scale commercial rollouts for those candidatesand now, it will do that for J&Js COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

While the vaccine discovery team's workload slowed somewhat after the candidate was chosen and moved into preclinical testing, Bos is still operating in overdrive. Normally, the team would wait for clinical data before proceeding, but with the accelerated timeline, all work is being done in parallel, she said.

That means even as Bos and her team wait for the start of the first human trials, planned for September, they're already preparing for global distribution to achieve J&J's goal of one billion vaccines by next year.

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J&J isnt only aggressively tackling the vaccine challenge, but also widely calling attention to its work and its scientists across digital and social media. In a way, J&J is consumerizing the epidemiology ofCOVID-19, bringing details and progress directly to the public.

Bos herself appeared in the first episode of the J&J original online series Road to a Vaccine, a look behind the scenes with journalist Lisa Ling that now airs live every Tuesday on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and JNJ.com. Other J&J scientists,including Chief Scientific Officer Paul Stoffels and global head of viral vaccine discovery Hanneke Schuitemaker, have also appeared on the show and in media interviews.

On a daily basis, Bos is keptbusy testing and making the material needed to start large-scale productiona fact not gone unnoticed by her three children, ages 7, 9 and 11. Initially they thought it was cool that their mom was working on a vaccine that couldhelp the world, but theyve become less enthusiasticespecially during the recent school break, when they would have preferred a playmate and vacation companion.

She's able to take her children to school every day; in the Netherlands, schools can provide care for children of parents who are working in essential professions. (Her husband is a radiology manager at a local hospital.) Bos also reservesevery evening from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. for dinner and family time. After bedtime books are read, however, she heads back to her computer for more data analysis, emails and study.

Bos said she's glad to have her children as a distraction to take her mind off work at times and stay mentally healthy.

RELATED:J&J inks 2nd manufacturing deal to boost capacity for COVID-19 vaccineThe

Even outside of this crisis, its always so nice that as soon as you come home, you focus on the kids. You just think about the kids and you forget about work for a while, she said. They also help keep her in shape. Along with going for solo runs when she can, Bos joins her children in the backyard for bouncesessions on the family's trampoline.

Bos in turn tendsto her work team'smental health and well-being, staying in touch withonline video meetings and dropping offfood or treats to say thank you and remind them they have support. Bos said one of the things she's looking forward to is the time when they can work together again in the J&J offices and labs.

J&J scientists on Bos' teamare just a few of the many people atwork inside pharma and research institutions, developing vaccines on previously unimaginable timelines. Pfizer, Sanofi, Moderna and AstraZeneca all have teams working on the more than 70 vaccine candidates beingconsideredfor COVID-19.

While Americans have been told by government officials and through the media that a vaccine might be available in 12 to 18 months, some are skeptical. Influential biopharma analyst Geoffrey Porges of SVB Leerlink recently put out an extensive report listing the many reasons he believes that timeline is overly optimistic.

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However, Bos herself is optimisticfor vaccine successshe has worked on influenza, Zika and HIV vaccines and noted that this novel coronavirus has provensimpler than many of those viruses. Because it has not yet changed much, she said, it's easier to design a vaccine than it is for fast-evolving viruses, such as the annual moving target of influenza, for instance.

For Bos, the pandemic offers an opportunity for people to see the real work of pharma scientists and remind them of thebenefit of vaccines. She hopes that by discussing details about COVID-19, peoplewill better understand what scientists at pharma companies doand that their main focus is public health, not making money.

Hopefully we can makeand not just usbut hopefully many companies will be successful and we can produce enough vaccines for the whole world," she said. "The hope is also that the virus will keep being stable and not change over time. In half a year, we will have a lot of data, from us andalso from a lot of companies, that will show if the vaccines can protect people. And thats really the ultimate goal."

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What's it like to work on J&J's coronavirus vaccine? For one scientist, it's social distancing in the lab, late nights at home - FiercePharma