The corona virus has so far claimed nearly 3 million lives worldwide, including some 575,000 in the U.S. But thanks to the development of vaccines in record time we may finally be turning the corner. The NYT has a great story on one of the heroes of that effort. Toiling in obscurity for decades Dr. Kario's work on mRNA has revolutionized vaccine development.
As the Times writes, Dr. Kario has focused her entire career on messenger RNA, "convinced that mRNA [which carries DNA instructions to cells' protein-making machinery] could be be used to instruct cells to make their own medicines, including vaccines." Her ideas about mRNA were unorthodox and largely dismissed in the academic world. For years Dr. Kario struggled to get funding for her research and moved from lab to lab. Eventually, two firms, Moderna and BioNTech took notice of her work and were using the science to work on the flu vaccine and Zika virus before the coronavirus came along.
For over 200 years, vaccines were produced using attenuated viruses. The R&D process was slow and complicated. With Dr. Kario's work the actual microbe is no longer required; mRNA carries specific instructions to make the snippets of virus protein necessary to stimulate the appropriate immune response. Here's how it works:
The process is faster and easier to control, significantly accelerating the R&D process for new vaccines.
After years of being on the fringes of genetic science, Dr. Kario is finally getting the recognition she deserves. She and her research colleague, Dr. Weissman, were vaccinated on Dec. 18 at the University of Pennsylvania..."A senior administrator told the doctors and nurses rolling up their sleeves for shots that the scientists whose research made the vaccine possible were present, and they all clapped. Dr. Kariko wept."
They are Heroes...
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