While using mRNA as medicine is new, mRNA has been inside you for your entire life. The cells in your body create mRNAs that serve as instructions to make specific proteins you need to function. Researchers can create new mRNAs to correct those instructions when they aren’t working.
I am a molecular biologist who studies how cells control their mRNAs to make the proteins they need, a basic question of how life works at the cellular level. While most scientists studying mRNAs are not creating new drugs, this fundamental understanding of how mRNA works laid the foundation for other scientists to create effective mRNA medicines like COVID-19 vaccines.
By tweaking these instructions, scientists can create powerful new medicines to repair a variety of problems in your cells.
What does mRNA do?
To understand what the mRNAs in your cells are doing for you, let’s start with its more well-known relative, DNA.
DNA is like a set of cookbooks full of different recipes, or genes, to make proteins. People make about 100,000 different proteins that are essential for normal function, such as breaking down nutrients and carrying out other important chemical reactions.
When cells need to make one of those proteins, they don’t read the recipe directly from DNA. Instead, they make a copy in the form of a similar molecule – that’s the mRNA. The “m” stands for messenger, as mRNA contains the message, or recipe, that codes for a protein. About one-third of a cell’s energy is devoted to maintaining the proteins you need, so cells are well equipped to recognize, use and then destroy mRNA once it’s no longer needed.
While using mRNA as medicine is new, mRNA has been inside you for your entire life. The cells in your body create mRNAs that serve as instructions to make specific proteins you need to function. Researchers can create new mRNAs to correct those instructions when they aren’t working.
I am a molecular biologist who studies how cells control their mRNAs to make the proteins they need, a basic question of how life works at the cellular level. While most scientists studying mRNAs are not creating new drugs, this fundamental understanding of how mRNA works laid the foundation for other scientists to create effective mRNA medicines like COVID-19 vaccines.
By tweaking these instructions, scientists can create powerful new medicines to repair a variety of problems in your cells.
What does mRNA do?
To understand what the mRNAs in your cells are doing for you, let’s start with its more well-known relative, DNA.
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