Katharine Collins
@kat-a-collins.bsky.social
Senior Program Officer - Global Health R&D @coeff_giving (previously openphil) | views my own. Malaria researcher | vaccine developer | R21 inventor
📣Exciting announcement 📣 The First Global Strep A Vaccine Conference Call for abstracts will open soon! 🌏Venue update: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, first week of February 2027 📝Abstract submissions open 30 July 2026. #GSAVConference2027 Read the full announcement here ⬇️ lnkd.in/eiu95fXm
Update on the First Global Strep A Vaccine Conference and Call for Abstracts New venue: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, first week of February 2027. Abstract submissions open 30 July 2026. #GSAVConference2027 Read the full announcement here ⬇️ mailchi.mp/bb746a4a55c6...
Update on the First Global Strep A Vaccine Conference and Call for Abstracts
mailchi.mp
I've spent my career working on vaccines, and until I joined Coefficient Giving, I'd never heard Strep A mentioned as a global health priority. The more I looked, the harder it was to understand why a disease killing 630,000+ people a year was so neglected.
A Vaccine for Strep A May Finally Be in Reach
Strep A—the bacterium behind strep throat and impetigo—kills hundreds of thousands of people a year, mostly young people in LMICs—yet Strep A vaccine R&D is chronically underfunded.
globalhealthnow.org
Strep A—the bacterium behind strep throat and impetigo—kills hundreds of thousands of people a year, mostly young people in LMICs—yet Strep A vaccine R&D is chronically underfunded, writes @kat-a-collins.bsky.social.
A Vaccine for Strep A May Finally Be in Reach
Strep A—the bacterium behind strep throat and impetigo—kills hundreds of thousands of people a year, mostly young people in LMICs—yet Strep A vaccine R&D is chronically underfunded.
globalhealthnow.org
Guys, how do you invent a vaccine? Or even wilder, how do you invent a vaccine during your PhD?! In a new episode of Hard Drugs, we talked to someone who did just that: @kat-a-collins.bsky.social! Plus: • Why did the first malaria vaccine take so long? • Could we make better vaccines today?
Inventing the second malaria vaccine with Katharine Collins
open.spotify.com
I'm really excited about the >$140 million Strep A Vaccine Fund we're launching today. I think the basic case here is a great recipe for impact ↓ bsky.app/profile/kat...
Katharine Collins (@kat-a-collins.bsky.social)
Today, Coefficient Giving is launching the Strep A Vaccine Fund, a multi-donor initiative to accelerate vaccine development against one of the world's most neglected infectious diseases relative to its scale. Strep A kills ~639,000 people a year. There is no vaccine. I think that can change 🧵
bsky.app
Today, Coefficient Giving is launching the Strep A Vaccine Fund, a multi-donor initiative to accelerate vaccine development against one of the world's most neglected infectious diseases relative to its scale. Strep A kills ~639,000 people a year. There is no vaccine. I think that can change 🧵
Read our May issue! Featuring spatial repellents for malaria control in refugee camps, Group B Streptococcus vaccination in pregnant women, and Nirsevimab prophylaxis for RSV in Galician infants bit.ly/41PlhSs
Main goal of podcast achieved ✅ Hope you enjoy the new episode! open.spotify.com/episode/792E...
Should everyone be taking statins?
open.spotify.com
Saloni@scientificdiscovery.dev · 6mo ago- Plus, I sing an adaptation of 'Barbie Girl', tons of fatty blob content, and Jacob makes me laugh so much I almost started crying
Some news: Open Philanthropy is now Coefficient Giving! Our mission is unchanged but the new name reflects our growing work with other donors to multiply the impact of their giving. 🧵 on our work to make philanthropy a more efficient "market" and plans going forward:
Hiring a PO to help us give away tens of millions more in vaccine R&D over the coming years, in particular to make progress on strep A. Kills 600k/y but should be fixable with creativity... Looking for an experienced scientist, but not necessarily in strep A: jobs.ashbyhq.com/openphilanth...
Program Officer, Science and Global Health R&D
Open Philanthropy is seeking a Program Officer to execute, expand, and refine our existing grantmaking strategies in Global Health R&D.
jobs.ashbyhq.com
🚨 Hiring scientists to help give away money 🚨 At Open Philanthropy, we have given away $600M in biomedical research since 2016. Now, we're expanding the team to do more. We're hiring: * Up to 3 Senior Program Associates * Program Officer in strep A Remote OK, salaries in links! (Thread below)
Hiring scientists to give away money
At Open Philanthropy, we have given away $600 million in biomedical research since 2016. That funding has supported the work of thousands of scientists across hundreds of universities, nonprofits, and...
blog.jacobtrefethen.com
Our most practical episode yet for people who want to dabble in biotech As of 2022, you can hallucinate protein structures using AI similar to Midjourney (RFDiffusion) -> create amino acid strings for them (ProteinMPNN) -> validate with AlphaFold Biology becomes engineering…
Saloni@scientificdiscovery.dev · 10mo agoNew episode of Hard Drugs! What if you could design a protein never seen in nature? Scientists are using new AI tools like RFDiffusion, AlphaFold & ProteinMPNN to hallucinate novel proteins to solve problems nature hasn't. @jacobtref.bsky.social & I talk about the art of protein design 🧑🎨
Hope for #Strep A #vaccine ... | #Streptococcus | #StrepA | #bacteria | #infection | #immunity | By @sheffielduni.bsky.social via @sciencex.bsky.social
Hope for Strep A vaccine: Scientists identify antibodies that protect children from infection
Scientists have discovered how some children develop natural immunity to a bacterial infection, a vital breakthrough which could help develop vaccines to save up to half a million lives globally each…
medicalxpress.com
The nasal flu vaccine reduces the risk of strep A infections, a study in the UK suggests, contrary to the claims of antivaxxers: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/nasal-flu-vaccine-may-help-reduce-cases-of-group-a-strep
Nasal flu vaccine may help reduce cases of group A strep
Analysis by UKHSA suggests a nasal spray vaccine that off...
gov.uk
Over the weekend I published an essay series on a question I've been thinking about for a while: What does AI progress mean for medical progress? It starts with this 500 word piece. If you want more after that, there are 10,000 words of forking paths: blog.jacobtrefethen.com/ai-progress-...
What does AI progress mean for medical progress?
Rapid AI progress does not automatically mean rapid medical progress. If the point of AI progress is human flourishing, we must make other complementary investments too. Even with extremely powerful A...
blog.jacobtrefethen.com
So excited to share what Saloni and I have been up to. Medical innovation is not inevitable. Sometimes breakthroughs take 40 years, thousands of people building on each others’ work & participating in clinical trials. Check out ep 1, and subscribe for more Hard Drugs! harddrugs.worksinprogress.co
Hard Drugs
Hard Drugs is a show by Saloni Dattani and Jacob Trefethen about medical innovation: how to speed it up, how to scale it up, and how to make sure lifesaving tools reach the people who need them the mo...
harddrugs.worksinprogress.co
Saloni@scientificdiscovery.dev · last yr.LAUNCH DAY 🚀 Today I’m launching a new podcast, Hard Drugs, with Jacob Trefethen (@jacobtref.bsky.social) Our first episode is about lenacapavir — a new HIV drug that blocks infections with an efficacy rate of nearly 100%, and which could completely change the fight against HIV worldwide.
NEW EPISODE of HARD DRUGS! “5 hours is too long!” some of you said after our first episode. So our second episode is 20 minutes 🤭 @jacobtref.bsky.social and I explore the world of proteins: how proteins fold into complex shapes, why complexity matters, how crowded and dynamic a cell really is.
Proteins: Weird blobs that do important things
open.spotify.com
LAUNCH DAY 🚀 Today I’m launching a new podcast, Hard Drugs, with Jacob Trefethen (@jacobtref.bsky.social) Our first episode is about lenacapavir — a new HIV drug that blocks infections with an efficacy rate of nearly 100%, and which could completely change the fight against HIV worldwide.
Lenacapavir: The miracle drug that could end AIDS
Hard Drugs · Episode
open.spotify.com
#Lenacapavir: The miracle drug that could end #AIDS. The new #HIV drug blocks infections with an efficacy rate of nearly 100%. The "Hard Drugs" podcast w/ @scientificdiscovery.dev @jacobtref.bsky.social open.spotify.com/episode/4nIj...
Lenacapavir: The miracle drug that could end AIDS
Hard Drugs · Episode
open.spotify.com
Prof de Silva & Dr Keeley speak on Strep A epi & immunity in the Gambia. 🗝️ Hyperendemicity of Strep A 🗝️ Index infections not explained by household contacts 🗝️ Early life immunity develops <2 y/o 🗝️ Ab response to carriage & infection 🗝️ ?protective immunity from SLO, SpyAD, SpyCEP #LISSSD25 #IDsky
I said no more #LISSSD25 posts but forgot a major highlight! Most sessions started w/ a patient lived experience video, and you can see them all @ lisssd2025.org/patient-stories Looking after patients during thier illnesses is v. stressful so it's great to hear their experiences when recovered.
Patient Stories — LISSSD 2025
lisssd2025.org
PhD cand. J Iwasaki talks about mechanism behind strep throat recurrence. 👅 ~15% strep throat relapse 👅 Relapse strains can persist in ⬆️ [pen] 👅 Intracellular persistence in strep intracell. comm. [SIC] 👅 SICs are L-switch'd to lack cell wall hence recur post Pen Rx #LISSSD25 #clinmicro
