> can therefore harness the power of science to make a vaccine
The title is misleading. He didn't really make the vaccine. The peptide sequences were designed by people with real biology credentials [1,2]. He ordered the peptides online. All he did himself was mix the peptides with some liquids [3] and spray his nose.
So what he effectively did is create chitosan nanoparticles loaded with protein/carbon nanoparticles. This, I would imagine, is to allow the proteins to help bypass every protease, lysosome, and other defensive mechanisms that your body and cells have to protect against non-self proteins. These antigens, would then need to be presented by major histocompatability complexes to induce an immune response.
The title is misleading. He didn't really make the vaccine. The peptide sequences were designed by people with real biology credentials [1,2]. He ordered the peptides online. All he did himself was mix the peptides with some liquids [3] and spray his nose.
[1] https://radvac.org/
[2] e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston_Estep, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Church_(geneticist)
[3] Ok, now I am misleading. There is also chitosan, vinegar, activated charcoal, and more steps than just mixing proteins with liquids.