Superheroes

Edwards's work is like his conversations: precise and economical. It's also, well, kind of technical. Basically, what he's done is taken a process that didn't work for making vaccines, stripped it to its essence and thus made it feasible. The process, "spray-drying," is the same one used to make pasteurized milk. It's usually done with chemicals that protect what's being dried from excessive heat. But when applied to live bacteria, those chemicals aren't protective—they're lethal. This was Edwards's insight. He and his graduate student Yun-Ling Wong took out the chemicals and spray-dried bacteria in a simpler solution of mostly water. The result, published in February, was a powdered version of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It could replace the current TB vaccine. All a patient would have to do is breathe it in.

Read the full article in Newsweek