Steve Pascolo
| Steve Pascolo | |
|---|---|
 StevePascoloatWork.png | |
| Born | 31 December 1970 Pont-Sainte-Maxence, France |
| 🏫 Education | École normale supérieure |
| 💼 Occupation | |
| Known for | mRNA technology in vaccines |
Steve Pascolo (born 31 December 1970) is a French researcher and one of the three co-founders of CureVac, of which he was Chief Scientific Officer from 2000 (creation date) to 2006.
He has dedicated a significant part of his professional life to the development of mRNA (messenger RNA) vaccine technology, particularly against cancer.
He now works as an immunologist and researcher at the University Hospital Zurich and created in 2017 the mRNA platform of the URPP for cancer research.[1]
He is also the CEO of the Swiss company Miescher Pharma GmbH in Zurich.
Early life and education
Steve Pascolo was born on December 31, 1970 in Pont-Sainte-Maxence, France. His father was a worker in a factory and his mother a cleaning lady. He received his M.S. in biology from the École normale supérieure (Paris).
Career
He then did his thesis (Ph.D.) supervised by Prof. François Lemonnier at the Pasteur Institute in Paris (1998) which led to the invention of the mouse model, HHD mice (humanized mice).[2]
He left to join Prof. Hans-Georg Rammensee for his post-doc at the University of Tübingen. Professor Rammensee was conducting research on various anti-cancer therapies.[2]
One of his projects was inspired by the work presented in February 1996 in Israel by Pr Eli Gilboa: using mRNA for vaccination which led to the first mRNA therapeutics company in 1997: Merix Bioscience (later renamed to Argos Therapeutics and now called CoImmune) Prof. Hans-Georg Rammensee, thought of using direct mRNA injections for vaccination and gave the subject of his thesis to a new student: Ingmar Hoerr. He tested and found that mRNA worked as a vaccine in mice.[3]
Ingmar Hoerr depicted the context: "Hans-Georg Rammensee's idea was to inject the liposomes containing the RNA directly, avoiding this cell transfer. He asked me to work on these two methods: cell transfer and direct RNA injection. The latter gave the best results. This experience opened my eyes and convinced me that this technology could lead to something great."[4]
These initial activities had already been conducted by Pierre Meulien and Frédéric Martinon in 1993. Pierre Meulien, Frédéric Martinon and their colleagues had shown that a liposome containing an mRNA encoding the nucleoprotein (NP) of the influenza virus induced an immune response in mice.[5]
Steve Pascolo tested the technique developed by Ingmar Hoerr and from 1998 onwards developed vaccines based on the direct in vitro injection of messenger RNA (ivt mRNA for in vitro transcribed), meanwhile Ingmar Hoerr was attending an MBA in Austria.
Ingmar Hoerr then decided to create Curevac, standing as its CEO, and surrounded himself with Steve Pascolo as CSO, who conducted the scientific research, and Florian Van der Mulbe as COO. Professor Günther Jung is the scientific director.
Hans-Georg Rammensee soon became a member of the founding team of Curevac.
Steve Pascolo developed the world's first pharmaceutical center for in vitro messenger RNA production and directed its scientific operations.[2]
At Curevac, he worked on optimizing the use of messenger RNA in vaccines, as initial experiments were successful but the immune responses produced were insufficient. In 2003, he filed a patent on the mRNA vaccine jointly with the Pasteur Institute in Paris and compared the relative efficacy of mRNA vaccines with DNA vaccines.[6]
The mRNA vaccines still required to be optimized because the immune responses were lower than those obtained with DNA vaccines.
He invented several patents, including optimisation of synthetic mRNA (AU2007203181A1 Stabilised mRNA with an increased G/C content and optimised codon for use in gene therapy) or utilisation of synthetic mRNA to produce antibodies in patients (US2016166691A1 RNA-CODED ANTIBODY).[7]
Later on in 2003, Steve Pascolo was the first study subject. He got injected with synthetic mRNA.[3] He also the same year developed the world's first human clinical study using mRNA vaccines.
In 2006, Steve Pascolo left Curevac to join the University Hospital of Zurich, where he optimized cancer chemotherapy protocols and continued his work on messenger RNA vaccines.
In 2008, his published human clinical studies showed for the first time in humans the safety of an intradermal mRNA vaccine in melanoma patients and the induction of immune responses[8].
In 2021, he published Synthetic Messenger RNA-Based Vaccines: from Scorn to Hype.[9]
Selected publications
- Steve Pascolo. "The messenger's great message for vaccination". Journal of Expert review of vaccination[10]
- S Pascolo. "Commenting on communicator RNA". Gene therapy.[11]
- Steve Pascolo. "HLA class I transgenic mice: development, utilization, and improvement". Journal of Expert Opinion on Biological therapy.[12]
- Steve Pascolo, Florent Ginhoux, Nihay Laham, Steffen Walter, Oliver Schoor, Jochen Probst, Pierre Rohrlich, Florian Obermayr, Paul Fisch, Olivier Danos, Rachel Ehrlich, Francois A. Lemonnier, Hans-Georg Rammensee. "The non-classical HLA class I molecule HFE does not influence the NK-like activity contained in fresh human PBMCs and does not interact with NK cells". International Immunology.[13]
- Steve Pascolo. "Messenger RNA-based vaccines". Journal of Expert Opinion on Biological therapy[14]
References
- Impfung gegen das Coronavirus: «Die Schweiz braucht eine eigene Impfstoff-Fabrik».
- Håbets budbringer.
- Zurich-based researcher working on coronavirus vaccine Archived 2021-05-22 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ "PD Dr. Steve Pascolo". www.cancer.uzh.ch.[permanent dead link]
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333456052_Design_of_in_vitro_Transcribed_mRNA_Vectors_for_Research_and_Therapy
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "The tangled history of mRNA vaccines".
- ↑ "Ingmar Hoerr, co-founder of CureVac: "Our vaccine will be cheaper and more accessible."".
- ↑ Martinon, F.; Krishnan, S.; Lenzen, G.; Magné, R.; Gomard, E.; Guillet, J. G.; Lévy, J. P.; Meulien, P. (1993). "Induction of virus-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes in vivo by liposome-entrapped mRNA". European Journal of Immunology. 23 (7): 1719–1722. doi:10.1002/eji.1830230749. PMID 8325342. Unknown parameter
|s2cid=ignored (help) - ↑ "Immunogenic preparations and vaccines on the basis of mrna".
- ↑ "Immunogenic Preparations and Vaccines on the Basis of Mrna".
- ↑ Weide, B.; Carralot, J. P.; Reese, A.; Scheel, B.; Eigentler, T. K.; Hoerr, I.; Rammensee, H. G.; Garbe, C.; Pascolo, S. (2008). "Results of the first phase I/II clinical vaccination trial with direct injection of mRNA". Journal of Immunotherapy (Hagerstown, Md. : 1997). 31 (2): 180–188. doi:10.1097/CJI.0b013e31815ce501. PMID 18481387. Unknown parameter
|s2cid=ignored (help) - ↑ Pascolo, Steve (February 9, 2021). "Synthetic Messenger RNA-Based Vaccines: from Scorn to Hype". Viruses. 13 (2): 270. doi:10.3390/v13020270. PMC 7916233 Check
|pmc=value (help). PMID 33572452 Check|pmid=value (help). - ↑ Pascolo, Steve (February 17, 2015). "The messenger's great message for vaccination". Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy. 14 (2): 153–156. doi:10.1586/14760584.2015.1000871. PMID 25586101 – via PubMed. Unknown parameter
|s2cid=ignored (help) - ↑ Pascolo, S. (2011-08-18). "Commenting on communicator RNA". Gene Therapy. 18 (10): 943–944. doi:10.1038/gt.2011.122. ISSN 1476-5462. PMID 21850049. Unknown parameter
|s2cid=ignored (help) - ↑ Pascolo, Steve (2005-07-01). "HLA class I transgenic mice: development, utilisation and improvement". Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy. 5 (7): 919–938. doi:10.1517/14712598.5.7.919. ISSN 1471-2598. PMID 16018738. Unknown parameter
|s2cid=ignored (help) - ↑ Rammensee, Hans-Georg; Lemonnier, Francois A.; Ehrlich, Rachel; Danos, Olivier; Fisch, Paul; Obermayr, Florian; Rohrlich, Pierre; Probst, Jochen; Schoor, Oliver (2005-02-01). "The non-classical HLA class I molecule HFE does not influence the NK-like activity contained in fresh human PBMCs and does not interact with NK cells". International Immunology. 17 (2): 117–122. doi:10.1093/intimm/dxh191. ISSN 0953-8178. PMID 15623549.
- ↑ Pascolo, Steve (August 17, 2004). "Messenger RNA-based vaccines". Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy. 4 (8): 1285–1294. doi:10.1517/14712598.4.8.1285. PMID 15268662 – via PubMed. Unknown parameter
|s2cid=ignored (help)
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