Scientific American September 24, 2021
Medicine accomplished a huge feat at the start of 2020, when researchers produced the first mRNA vaccine to protect humans from SARS-CoV-2 infection. It was certainly not new technology—the vaccine platform had been under development for more than a decade and tested against multiple diseases, from flu to rabies. It represents our rapidly advancing understanding of how the body manufactures proteins, the molecules that are coded for by our genes. The potential to manipulate the very blueprints that our cells use to build the molecules and cells at the heart of disease is undoubtedly a game changer. Beyond vaccines, researchers have been devising treatments for cancer, lymphoma, AIDS, cystic fibrosis, and more, aided by new gene-editing technology,...