mRNA

Researchers have realized just how much more RNAs can do — how much they control, even. In particular, scientists are finding RNAs that influence health and disease yet have nothing to do with being messengers - Tina Hesman Saey

mRNA

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How mRNA Technology Could Change the World

People rely on proteins for just about every bodily function; mRNA—which stands for messenger ribonucleic acid—tells our cells which proteins to make. With human-edited mRNA, we could theoretically commandeer our cellular machinery to make just about any protein under the sun. You could mass-produce molecules that occur naturally in the body to repair organs or improve blood flow. Or you could request our cells to cook up an off-menu protein, which our immune system would learn to identify as an invader and destroy.

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Featured

 mRNA Technology Gave Us the First COVID-19 Vaccines. It Could Also Upend the Drug Industry

That leads us to the molecule that has proven victorious in the COVID vaccine race and deserves the title of TIME magazine’s Molecule of the Year: RNA. Its sibling DNA is more famous. But like many famous siblings, DNA doesn’t do much work. It mainly stays bunkered down in the nucleus of our cells, protecting the information it encodes. RNA, on the other hand, actually goes out and gets things done.

 The Vast Promise of mRNA Technology

The Covid vaccine platform offers real hope for treating many other diseases, including cancer. How an immigrant from Hungary played a prominent scientific role.

 ‘This will happen before 2030’: how the science behind Covid vaccines might help to fight cancer

The success of mRNA-based drugs in combating coronavirus is inspiring scientists to create similar vaccines for melanoma and other tumours

Articles of Interest

After Covid-19 Vaccines, What Else Can mRNA Tech Do?

The Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna were the first products using mRNA tech to get approved for use. Now scientists and researchers are looking at other uses for that tech, such as more effective flu vaccines or creating the first effective HIV vaccine.

Beyond COVID: mRNA Vaccines May Treat Cancer and More

This plug-and-play technology is revolutionizing vaccinology.

Can the Technology Behind Covid Vaccines Cure Other Diseases?

Researchers are developing tools for using messenger RNA to fight the flu, cancer, HIV and other diseases—but challenges remain.

Discovery of messenger RNA in 1961

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, words that just a year ago would have been the preserve of scientists have entered everyday language. One example is PCR, used for diagnostic tests. Another term that was once unfamiliar and is now on everyone's lips is messenger RNA, the miraculous molecule that has led to vaccines being administered to the general population less than a year after the start of the pandemic – bearing in mind that it previously took around a decade to develop a vaccine for a new disease. What exactly is this messenger RNA? Who discovered it, and when?

Don’t shoot the messenger—the pioneers of mRNA

MESSENGER RNA, or mRNA, is the molecule that forms the basis of the coronavirus vaccines made by Moderna and by Pfizer-BioNTech. Although the vaccines went from lab to jab in just a few months, the idea of using mRNA as a therapy has been around for decades. The pioneers of this powerful technology reveal its unexpected path, the obstacles that had to be overcome along the way and its future potential.

Halting Progress and Happy Accidents: How mRNA Vaccines Were Made

The stunning Covid vaccines manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna drew upon long-buried discoveries made in the hopes of ending past epidemics.

Here are 5 RNAs that are stepping out of DNA’s shadow

DNA is the glamour molecule of the genetics world. Its instructions are credited with defining appearance, personality and health. And the proteins that result from DNA’s directives get credit for doing most of the work in our cells. RNA, if mentioned at all, is considered a mere messenger, a go-between — easy to ignore. Until now.

Messenger RNA vaccine pioneer Katalin Karikó shares her long journey to Covid-19 vaccines

In the span of the Covid-19 pandemic, and thanks to the success of two of the currently available vaccines for SARS-CoV-2, messenger RNA, or mRNA, went from being an obscure cell biology concept understood and mentioned only by scientists to being a household term.

Moderna co-founder Robert Langer: ‘I wanted to use my chemical engineering to help people’

The celebrated US scientist and inventor on not being in it for the money, why diversity improves problem-solving, and his dedication to exercising.

mRNA drugs with a built-in ‘copy machine’ could lead to safer, more effective therapies

This story has been adapted from the STAT Report “The future of messenger RNA: Covid-19 vaccines are just the beginning.”

MRNA's Next Chapter Has Nothing to Do With COVID-19 Vaccines

It’s safe to say that before the development of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, most people hadn’t thought about messenger RNA, or mRNA, since high school science class—if ever. The molecule plays a pivotal role in the body, carrying the recipes for making various proteins to the parts of cells that produce them.

New cancer treatments may be on the horizon—thanks to mRNA vaccines

The COVID-19 pandemic brought mRNA vaccines into the limelight. But the technology may also prove to be a powerful weapon against hard-to-treat cancers.

The story of mRNA: How a once-dismissed idea became a leading technology in the Covid vaccine race

For decades, scientists have dreamed about the seemingly endless possibilities of custom-made messenger RNA, or mRNA. Researchers understood its role as a recipe book for the body’s trillions of cells, but their efforts to expand the menu have come in fits and starts. The concept: By making precise tweaks to synthetic mRNA and injecting people with it, any cell in the body could be transformed into an on-demand drug factory.

The tangled history of mRNA vaccines

Hundreds of scientists had worked on mRNA vaccines for decades before the coronavirus pandemic brought a breakthrough..

Three ways RNA is being used in the next generation of medical treatment

Three ways RNA is being used in the next generation of medical treatment https://theconversation.com/three-ways-rna-is-being-used-in-the-next-generation-of-medical-treatment-158190 RNAs, or ribonucleic acids, are some of the most important molecules for life on this planet. RNA is found in every cell in the body, and plays an important role in the flow of genetic information.

Ugur Sahin and Ozlem Tureci on the future of mRNA therapies

The founders of BioNTech are looking beyond covid-19.

What is mRNA? The messenger molecule that’s been in every living cell for billions of years is the key ingredient in some COVID-19 vaccines

Sections of the DNA code are transcribed into shortened messages that are instructions for making proteins. These messages – the mRNA – are transported out to the main part of the cell. Once the mRNA arrives, the cell can produce particular proteins from these instructions.

‘Maybe the Coronavirus Was Lower-Hanging Fruit’

Emerging mRNA technology proved excellent for COVID vaccines. BioNTech’s founders preview what that could mean for cancer and other mysteries.

Resources

Moderna

From accelerating drug discovery and early development to a rapidly expanding pipeline and a world-class team, we are delivering on the promise of mRNA.

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