Messenger RNA technology might kick-start a new age of vaccines (Podcast; full transcript available)
Fascinating episode today talking about where mRNA vaccines could be headed. A few highlights…
Because mRNA vaccines ultimately use our bodies as a pharmaceutical plant, we can target essentially any virus where we can make any type of an antibody to it.
We have an annual flu season that, for the last 100 years, we haven’t been able to get ahead of. And I think this is the technology that finally puts the nail in the coffin.
…The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency… has already started looking at how they can put the entire drug factory into the field, so that they can turn around this type of vaccine in just a few days, pretty much anywhere.
I think that the technology that we’re developing now to detect viruses, to design vaccines and ultimately produce vaccines will be the size of a cellphone, and it will be accessible globally.
—Andrew Hessel