What mRNA is Good For, And What It Maybe Isn’t
By Derek Lowe,
Science Magazine
| 06. 29. 2021
The huge success of the mRNA vaccination platform during the pandemic has set a lot of people to thinking about what comes next. Moderna and BioNTech, of course, have been thinking this way for quite some time. But Sanofi now says that they’ll be investing large amounts into the technology, and this previously hadn’t been a big priority for them. There are others as well. So let’s step back a little and look at what mRNA can do and what it can’t.
Therapeutic mRNAs
The first distinction is between vaccines and therapeutics. It’s hard to remember now, but Moderna did not really start out as a vaccine company – they were going to make mRNA-based therapeutics, and there are some key differences. It’s an exciting idea to reach into the body and tell particular cells to start making particular proteins (of your choice) by sending mRNA messages into them. You can think of a lot of possibilities, but there are a lot of difficulties along the way to realizing that.
For one, you’re not taking advantage of the memory that...
Related Articles
By Elizabeth Dwoskin and Zoeann Murphy, The Washington Post | 10.01.2025
MEXICO CITY — When she walked into an IVF clinic in June, Alin Quintana knew it would be the last time she would try to conceive a child. She had prepared herself spiritually and mentally for the visit: She had traveled to a nearby...
By Rob Stein, NPR | 09.30.2025
Scientists have created human eggs containing genes from adult skin cells, a step that someday could help women who are infertile or gay couples have babies with their own genes but would also raise difficult ethical, social and legal issues...
By Jessica Mouzo, El País | 10.03.2025
DNA is the molecule of life: this double-helix structure, present in every cell in the body and organized into fragments called genes, stores the instructions for making organisms function. It is a highly precise biological machine, but sometimes it breaks...
GeneWatch UK has prepared a briefing on the genetic modification of nature for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Congress in October 2025
The upcoming Congress claims to be “where the world comes together to set priorities and drive conservation and sustainable development action.” A major concern for those on the outside is that the Congress may advance plans to develop and encourage the use of synthetic biology in nature conservation. This could at first glance sound like...