There have been few pharmaceutical companies that have ever been in the spotlight like Moderna Therapeutics has. One of the creators of the COVID-19 vaccine, people around the world, know the name of this biotechnology company and have had its product floating in their bloodstream.
That being said, many people don't
know much about Moderna outside of the headline news about their vaccine
development. The truth is,Moderna is changing the world of medicine in many
notable ways, ways that the average person might not be well aware of.
What do you need to know about the
Moderna pharmaceutical company and its work? Read on, and we'll walk you
through the basics.
History
of Moderna
Moderna first formed as a company in
2010. Five years previous, Stanford fellow Derrick Rossi had begun studying the
subject of RNA-mediated immune activations. Rossi developed a method that
allowed mRNA to be modified in the human cell.
He determined a way to model mRNA
into the form of desired target cell types. This was a huge breakthrough, which
he shared with Harvard faculty member Timothy Springer.
Soon, Moderna Co-founder Kenneth Chien was brought to consult and invest, and the formal creation
of Moderna soon followed. "ModeRNA Therapeutic" was the official name
of this new company, made from the combination of modified and RNA.
The fact that these combined to form
the word 'modern' was a pleasant coincidence.
Within only two years of its life as
a company, it already received a unicorn valuation. This means it was valued at
over one billion dollars. The company raised $40 million quite easily based on
this valuation.
The company set to work on
developing treatments for a number of rare diseases. It established a
headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and got to work on developing an
mRNA-based flu vaccine.
In 2015, they had created that
vaccine, the first marker of achievement for this new form of approaching
disease prevention.
Of course, when the COVID-19
pandemic struck the world just a few years later, Moderna was one of the
companies best prepared to come up with a solution for this deadly issue.
In 2020, the COVID-19 vaccine
received a recommendation from the CDC, and millions across the country
received it.
What
Sets Moderna Therapeutics Apart
As we mentioned above, Moderna is
one of the companies set to use mRNA to change the way we think about medicine.
Moderna is at the forefront of this new mRNA-focused way of thinking about
disease prevention.
If successful, the implementation of
mRNA vaccines and treatments could transform the way the world of medicine
works entirely.
Understanding Proteins
and mRNA
How does it all work, and why is
this new tech possibly so radical?
Let's start with the basics of the
body. The human body is made up of a great many cells (trillions of them!), and
these cells all contain proteins. Proteins are the workhorses of the cell, and
they accomplish a great many tasks.
Some proteins, such as insulin,
control blood sugar levels. Proteins combat disease and viruses, maintain
health, and keep the body running as it should.
Proteins are made within the cells
themselves in a process known as protein synthesis. Each cell works as its own
protein factory, producing proteins that the body needs.
mRNA, which stands for messenger RNA,
already exists within your cells and has for all of human history. mRNA moves
between different elements of a cell and carries instructions for protein
creation.
You can think of these instructions
as a blueprint for protein creation. mRNA delivers these plans, and the rest of
the cell gets to work on creating them.
Once the instructions have been
passed off to the cell, mRNA breaks down and dissipates in the body. It does
not stick around for too long.
How
mRNA Treatment Works
What the scientists at Moderna
realized is that if you could design your own mRNA, you could help the body to
produce the kinds of proteins that could potentially benefit it.
If the body needed certain proteins
to be able to combat certain diseases, an injection could provide the
blueprint, and the cells could get to work on creating these needed
proteins.
After delivering the instructions,
the mRNA transfer would break down and disappear, offering no other types of
permanent changes to the body.
Traditionally, medical scientists
would need to inject a small amount of the virus into the body so that the
immune system could learn to recognize it. mRNA vaccines allow the body to
produce that virus sample all on its own.
At the end of the day, Moderna's
work is about finding the most efficient way to administer protection to the human
body. mRNA vaccines are the future of medical care, and the success of the
COVID-19 vaccine just goes to show how helpful this kind of medical advancement
can really be.
The Modernacompany had a long path
to get to this point, but after ten years of focused and detailed work, the
future of medicine seems much brighter.
The
Future of Medicine &Moderna
Where does Moderna go from here?
Time will only tell what Moderna Therapeutics will be able to accomplish now
that the groundbreaking mRNA technology has seen this widespread practical
application. It's an exciting time to be in the field, and the next few years
should be exciting to watch.
It's safe to say that the world of
medicine will never be the same.
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