mRNA vaccine (COVID-19)
Vacuna de ARN mensajero (COVID-19)
- Date
- 2020 · confidence high
- Place
- BioNTech, Mainz, Germany, with Pfizer; Moderna, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
- Credited to
- Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman (modified mRNA, Penn, 2005; Nobel 2023); Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci (BioNTech); Moderna and the NIH; lipid nanoparticles by Pieter Cullis
- People
- 👤 Drew Weissman1959–👤 Katalin Karikó1955–
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
Vaccine whose active ingredient is lipid-encapsulated messenger RNA that instructs cells to produce the antigen, designed within days and approved in under a year. It saved millions of lives during the pandemic.
What it led to
- The mRNA platform for flu, RSV, personalised cancer treatment and rare diseases
- The acceleration of clinical trials and vaccine manufacturing
- The anti-vaccine movement and healthcare polarisation
Built on
- Recombinant DNA genetic engineering1973
- Nucleoside modification of mRNA (pseudouridine) to avoid immune response2005
- Next-generation sequencing (454, Solexa/Illumina)2005-2006
- Sequencing and release of the SARS-CoV-2 genomeenero de 2020
- lipid nanoparticles
- next-generation sequencing (virus genome)
Made possible
- mRNA cancer vaccines
- combined mRNA vaccines
- mRNA therapies