Day: November 11, 2020💾

This is exciting news for a reason that is likely to get overshadowed by its application to the pandemic – this is an mRNA vaccine. If it gets approved it would be the first mRNA vaccine in use. The technology first appeared in the literature in 1990, so this has been in development for 30 years. There were many hurdles to overcome, but they eventually were solved.

Vaccines work by introducing material into the body that will provoke a specific adaptive immune response. This could be an attenuated virus, a killed virus, or a viral protein, for example. An mRNA vaccine works by introducing messenger RNA, the genetic material that is used to make (transcribe) proteins. The technology was developed so that the introduced mRNA is taken up by cells and used to make viral proteins, which then provoke the desired immune response. Why not just inject the proteins themselves? You can, but mRNA has several advantages, including that it can be mass-produced more quickly and cheaply than a protein-based vaccine. If this vaccine works and gets approval it may usher in a new era of vaccine production that could have benefit far beyond the current pandemic.