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Moderna mRNA sequence released to GitHub [pdf]

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Re: Moderna mRNA sequence released to GitHub [pdf]

#201

Post by kube-system »

hutzlibu wrote: post #175
retrac wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, really. Typical vaccines are like $5 to $200 or so. And worst of all, usually just one or two doses. For all the horror HIV has wrought, global spending on vaccine development for HIV has been around $1 billion a year for the last few years. In contrast, the USA federal government spends $3 billion a year for HIV antiviral drugs for low-income Americans. $20,000 per patient per year for life. Unsurprisingly, new…

"es, really. Typical vaccines are like $5 to $200 or so" But since the demand is 14 000 000 000 doses, there should still be a little bit of money in it?

Yes, but a pandemic only comes around every hundred years or so. Moderna happened to be in the right place at the right time for this one, but delivering vaccines for a pandemic is not much of a solid business plan.

Re: Moderna mRNA sequence released to GitHub [pdf]

#202

Post by mlyle »

mikehollinger wrote: post #167
dnautics wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sequence is actually released by Moderna in their patent: https://www.modernatx.com/sites/default/files/US10702600.pdf though they do present multiple sequences, so I guess you'd have to go to the FDA application to figure out exactly which one got used.

Reading the primary claim is fascinating: "A composition, comprising: a messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) comprising an open reading frame encoding a betacoronavirus (BetaCoV) S protein or S protein subunit formulated in a lipid nanoparticle." I have a "I'm sure that means something to somebody" feeling. It's also surprising that the remaining claims seem to describe the resulting bits of the sequence, and that that…

> I have a "I'm sure that means something to somebody" feeling.

Break it down! It's not so bad:

> A composition

A bunch of stuff

> a messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)

mRNA are cellular instructions on how to make proteins that are read by ribosomes that make those proteins as they read along.

> an open reading frame

This is something that starts with a "start codon" and ends with an "ending codon" and encodes valid instructions to make a protein between.

> encoding a betacoronavirus (BetaCoV) S protein or S protein subunit

The instructions refer to the spike protein of a betacoronavirus, or a fragment thereof, because this is what we want the immune system to pay attention to (and make antibodies to bind to and neutralize).

> in a lipid nanoparticle

The immune system gets pissed off about mRNA floating around, because that's one of the things that happens with active infection. So if you want this to get into cells and tell them to make your protein, you need to encase it so that it mostly escapes immune notice itself.

Re: Moderna mRNA sequence released to GitHub [pdf]

#203

Post by o-__-o »

hcayless wrote: post #188
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.

The big money’s going to be in cancer treatments. If they can use this to target tumors, they’ll do quite well.

Bad news, it’s not looking very successful right now. Moderna is making back all the lost revenue with the emergency authorization tho

Re: Moderna mRNA sequence released to GitHub [pdf]

#205

Post by Benjamin_Dobell »

ethbr0 wrote: post #195
mikehollinger wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading the primary claim is fascinating: "A composition, comprising: a messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) comprising an open reading frame encoding a betacoronavirus (BetaCoV) S protein or S protein subunit formulated in a lipid nanoparticle." I have a "I'm sure that means something to somebody" feeling. It's also surprising that the remaining claims seem to describe the resulting bits of the sequence, and that that…

It's an interesting structure, but probably partly out of patent law. To wit, SARS-nCoV-2 is non-patentable, being of natural occurance. But a specific composition that encodes its spike protein, encapsulated in a lipid nanoparticle? That's much more of a creative work.

> That's much more of a creative work.

Probably worth noting that patents are not required to be creative. That's copyright terminology.

I think the terminology used for patents is something like "inventive and useful".

Re: Moderna mRNA sequence released to GitHub [pdf]

#207

Post by mrfusion »

mlyle wrote: post #202
mikehollinger wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading the primary claim is fascinating: "A composition, comprising: a messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) comprising an open reading frame encoding a betacoronavirus (BetaCoV) S protein or S protein subunit formulated in a lipid nanoparticle." I have a "I'm sure that means something to somebody" feeling. It's also surprising that the remaining claims seem to describe the resulting bits of the sequence, and that that…

> I have a "I'm sure that means something to somebody" feeling. Break it down! It's not so bad: > A composition A bunch of stuff > a messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) mRNA are cellular instructions on how to make proteins that are read by ribosomes that make those proteins as they read along. > an open reading frame This is something that starts with a "start codon" and ends with an "ending codon" and encodes valid i…

Why haven’t viruses or bacteria evolved to use a lipid nano particle to evade the immune system? Seems like a big security flaw in our cells?

Re: Moderna mRNA sequence released to GitHub [pdf]

#208

Post by inportb »

mrfusion wrote: post #206

The lipid container is weird to me. Is that all it takes to send instructions inside a cell? Seems like a security hole. Why haven’t viruses evolved to have a lipid container?

> Why haven’t viruses evolved to have a lipid container?

They have. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_envelope

Re: Moderna mRNA sequence released to GitHub [pdf]

#210

Post by Gatsky »

purple_ferret wrote: post #72
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.

Any individual protein doesn't seem that complex since it's just a combination of some 20 amino acids, but the variations are endless: "Since each of the 20 amino acids is chemically distinct and each can, in principle, occur at any position in a protein chain, there are 20 × 20 × 20 × 20 = 160,000 different possible polypeptide chains four amino acids long, or 20n different possible polypeptide chains n amino acids…

Then there are also post translational modifications, like addition of acetyl or phosphate groups, and sugars to the protein (glycoproteins).

I mean, I can understand how an eye or a brain can evolve by natural selection, but I’m still stunned by abiogenesis. I guess we’ll never know for sure how it all started.

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