Earlier quoted context omitted.
Modern a has been working on mRNA since 2010 and mRNA vaccines since 2012. They have the process down pretty solid, but vaccines do not bring in the bacon.
Now that they've spent a year developing the mass-production methods and infrastructure, it might bring in the bacon! e.g. there's a steady annual market for a flu vaccine for whatever the latest strain is, and being able to get that to market faster than the competition could give them an edge. I just don't think it was every profitable enough for them to put in this enormous capital expenditure.
Moderna mRNA sequence released to GitHub [pdf]
141–150 of 389 posts
Re: Moderna mRNA sequence released to GitHub [pdf]
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
> delivery mechanism: you need to take a very unstable molecule, protect it from the environment - both external, and when inside the patient - and insert it into a human cell. (This is called the "platform", and is usually developed independently from the specific payload.) Of note, the immune system is pretty good at destroying foreign mRNA so you also need to evade it. This article is pretty good: https://berthub.…
I wouldn't even say the immune system, your body has a ton of nonspecific RNA-digesting enzymes floating around to patrol for exactly this sort of thing happening, even by accident, as cells can sometimes rupture. It's a problem enough that good RNA researchers have a reputation of being clean freaks. Some RNA labs I've been in had a lingering, slightly sweet smell, that's the nonspecific RNAase inhibitor that gets s…
(Though RNA may have been more stable under the high-UV-exposure conditions the early Earth.)
Re: Moderna mRNA sequence released to GitHub [pdf]
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
Modern a has been working on mRNA since 2010 and mRNA vaccines since 2012. They have the process down pretty solid, but vaccines do not bring in the bacon.
" but vaccines do not bring in the bacon." As in, "do not generate enough income"? Really? Now?
Re: Moderna mRNA sequence released to GitHub [pdf]
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
From that link: > The injection contains volatile genetic material that describes the famous SARS-CoV-2 ‘Spike’ protein. Through clever chemical means, the vaccine manages to get this genetic material into some of our cells. > These then dutifully start producing SARS-CoV-2 Spike proteins in large enough quantities that our immune system springs into action. Confronted with Spike proteins, and (importantly) tell-tale…
> The reason I'm asking is to understand how the vaccine designers determine if there are any long-term effects of having this artificial material inside your body The properties of mRNA are well known and have been for decades. Your cells are constantly producing more from the nucleus. It degrades, even more so when it gets transcribed. That's the beauty of this, it's self-limiting. The only 'artificial' thing about…
Re: Moderna mRNA sequence released to GitHub [pdf]
#145Re: Moderna mRNA sequence released to GitHub [pdf]
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wait, you mean you don't extract genomic data from Excel? The MARCH1 gene brings many interesting surprises.
I am fond of September 2, myself. For those not in the know: https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13...
Re: Moderna mRNA sequence released to GitHub [pdf]
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
from what I've gathered, the rate limiting step for production as of yet, is creating the lipid vesicles and getting the RNA inside of them. Only a few companies have a process for this, and the supply chain for the precursors is limited as well.
Could be wrong but AFAIU the Pfizer one doesn't encapsulate in a lipid, hence why it needs lower temperatures.
Re: Moderna mRNA sequence released to GitHub [pdf]
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
from what I've gathered, the rate limiting step for production as of yet, is creating the lipid vesicles and getting the RNA inside of them. Only a few companies have a process for this, and the supply chain for the precursors is limited as well.
Could be wrong but AFAIU the Pfizer one doesn't encapsulate in a lipid, hence why it needs lower temperatures.
From the CDC "ingredients" for the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, along with cholesterol (which modulates the stability of lipid membranes), they report using this molecule, which would form a phospholipid bylayer, just like our own cells use: https://www.sigmaaldrich.com/catalog/product/avanti/850365P?...
Re: Moderna mRNA sequence released to GitHub [pdf]
#149'A group of Stanford researchers has hacked Moderna’s messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine for the novel coronavirus, Motherboard first reported on Monday, and published its entire genetic sequence on the open-source code repository Github.' https://gizmodo.com/stanford-scientists-post-entire-mrna-seq...
What does "hacked" mean here? The article makes it sound like this wasn't something illegal: > Fire and Shoura told Motherboard that they had received permission from the FDA to collect scraps of vaccines that wouldn’t have otherwise been used from empty vials and that they’d notified Moderna in advance of their plans to publish the sequence without receiving any objection in turn. Also: > The research team told Moth…