Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Moderna mRNA sequence released to GitHub [pdf]

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 389 posts

Re: Moderna mRNA sequence released to GitHub [pdf]

#151

Post by atleta »

throwawaysea wrote: post #129
atleta wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Read the article, it answers your question in detail: > The very end of mRNA is polyadenylated. This is a fancy way of saying it ends on a lot of AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. Even mRNA has had enough of 2020 it appears. > mRNA can be reused many times, but as this happens, it also loses some of the A’s at the end. Once the A’s run out, the mRNA is no longer functional and gets discarded. In this way, the ‘poly-A’ tail is pro…

Can you explain what "discarded" means there? Does the body somehow flush it out?

My understanding was that it gets cut into pieces (probably nucleotides in the end) and then reused. I've done a quick google search and it seems that there are multiple mechanisms: http://www.eb.tuebingen.mpg.de/remco-sprangers/mrna-degradat... and also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messenger_RNA#Degradation

But the main idea is that it degrades with use until it becomes unusable and actively gets destroyed.

Re: Moderna mRNA sequence released to GitHub [pdf]

#153

Post by hutzlibu »

wonderwonder wrote: post #28

We are simply programmable machines, its pretty interesting that all of human life can be reduced down to 30k editable microservices.

"its pretty interesting that all of human life can be reduced down to 30k editable microservices."

I don't know much about DNA and co, but it sounds as microservice is not the right metapher. Rather just 30k sourcecode?

Because a microservice is something that is already compiled and running..

Re: Moderna mRNA sequence released to GitHub [pdf]

#154

Post by hadlock »

hutzlibu wrote: post #138
o-__-o wrote: post #134

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.

" but vaccines do not bring in the bacon." As in, "do not generate enough income"? Really? Now?

Current pricing for mRNA vaccines is something in the $4-7 dollars (that's $7.00 dollars, not $7,000.00 dollars) range. Compare that to one of the Hepatitis C treatments, which costs north of $350,000 by several accounts. Even remdesivir is something like $3000 for a course.

Re: Moderna mRNA sequence released to GitHub [pdf]

#155

Post by xjlin0 »

drtz wrote: post #31

I'm sure it's more complex than I grasp as a layperson, but I'm utterly amazed at how simple this _appears_. I get the feeling that this is something I have a better chance of understanding than the average SaaS Terms and Conditions. I expected to have to scroll through pages upon pages of indecipherable text. Instead it's no bigger than a large paragraph of text, and I can easily fit it on my screen.

"but I'm utterly amazed at how simple this _appears_."

Remind me the joke of the consultant engineer knows where to make X by the chalk. LOL

Re: Moderna mRNA sequence released to GitHub [pdf]

#156

Post by robinsord »

azernik wrote: post #70
drtz wrote: post #31

I'm sure it's more complex than I grasp as a layperson, but I'm utterly amazed at how simple this _appears_. I get the feeling that this is something I have a better chance of understanding than the average SaaS Terms and Conditions. I expected to have to scroll through pages upon pages of indecipherable text. Instead it's no bigger than a large paragraph of text, and I can easily fit it on my screen.

The protein they're trying to manufacture is indeed quite simple - AFAIU both BioNTech and Moderna put together their sequences in a weekend. (Though there was a more involved process of winnowing down the sequences for the most effective ones.) The technically challenging parts are: - delivery mechanism: you need to take a very unstable molecule, protect it from the environment - both external, and when inside the p…

[dead]

Re: Moderna mRNA sequence released to GitHub [pdf]

#157

Post by amluto »

drtz wrote: post #31

I'm sure it's more complex than I grasp as a layperson, but I'm utterly amazed at how simple this _appears_. I get the feeling that this is something I have a better chance of understanding than the average SaaS Terms and Conditions. I expected to have to scroll through pages upon pages of indecipherable text. Instead it's no bigger than a large paragraph of text, and I can easily fit it on my screen.

It appears simple, but a whole lot of work went in to producing that string even pte-COVID. Some of it is generic in the sense that it might apply to any mRNA vaccine. Some is quite specific:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5584442/

There’s also (IIRC, no citation right now) prior work suggesting that coronavirus vaccines against the spike are likely to be effective and that vaccines against the N protein might be counterproductive.

Re: Moderna mRNA sequence released to GitHub [pdf]

#159

Post by usrusr »

hfjfktmtkrn wrote: post #32
elliekelly wrote: post #5

I’m a little confused by the title? Looking at the document, it seems to me (knowing next to nothing about this field) it includes both Pfizer and Moderna’s protein spike sequence in figures 1 and 2, respectively. Is that correct? It’s also interesting the way it’s worded: that the sequence was “assembled from $vaccine”. Does that mean whoever published this has backed into these sequences rather than having gathered…

They sequenced vaccine leftover remaining in used vials. So reverse engineering basically.

And reverse engineering only sounds dramatic until you take a step back and acknowledge that it's what they literally do all the time. Only that usually the sequences they read are not the outcome of some human development effort but of naturally occurring evolutionary processes.

Re: Moderna mRNA sequence released to GitHub [pdf]

#160

Post by subroutine »

andrewcl wrote: post #42

Cool, but it's the lipid delivery system that is the secret sauce. This is equivalent to giving the source code without a compiler to build it.

Meh, they probably just used lipofectamine (which has been around since the 90s) or something very similar.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipofectamine

https://www.thermofisher.com/us/en/home/brands/product-brand...

Post reply on HN