It now seems possible that the technology used to produce a COVID-19 vaccine in weeks could produce cancer vaccines. Why did we need a pandemic to find that out?
You have it in the wrong order, as is also evident from the date on your link.
The reality is that BioNTech was in the business of researching cancer vaccines for years, and repurposed its platform for COVID-19, which appears to be a comparatively easy target for vaccines. Afaiu Moderna is a similar story.
As to why you personally did not find out before the pandemic: It’s not your field of study, and people actively pursue many promising avenues for new drugs, many of which never pan out.
There is an entire cottage industry of typically abysmal popscience articles a la “OMG! This scientist is developing this awesome Cure For Cancer (TM)”.
What is your exact complaint here? Are you saying that “Nature Reviews Drug Discovery” is too low-key a journal for the linked article? Do you think that 2018 is too late as a publication date? Do you think the NY Times should have published a big article about that development in 2018?
You have it in the wrong order, as is also evident from the date on your link.
I am not assuming that the technology was developed for the pandemic. I am aware that it existed prior to the pandemic.
What is your exact complaint here? Are you saying that “Nature Reviews Drug Discovery” is too low-key a journal for the linked article?
The mRNA work is well published and there are highly cited papers going back many years.
The section of my blog post you are commenting is about transfer. Publishing in Nature is not transfer. Transfer is deploying the technology.
I am not complaining that they failed to publish research papers.
As to why you personally did not find out before the pandemic: It’s not your field of study, and people actively pursue many promising avenues for new drugs, many of which never pan out.
I am not a medical expert in any sense of the word, but I do tend to learn about successfully deployed technology.
I am pretty sure that even medical doctors were unaware that we had the ability to produce new vaccines in weeks from DNA data dumps.
You have it in the wrong order, as is also evident from the date on your link.
The reality is that BioNTech was in the business of researching cancer vaccines for years, and repurposed its platform for COVID-19, which appears to be a comparatively easy target for vaccines. Afaiu Moderna is a similar story.
As to why you personally did not find out before the pandemic: It’s not your field of study, and people actively pursue many promising avenues for new drugs, many of which never pan out.
There is an entire cottage industry of typically abysmal popscience articles a la “OMG! This scientist is developing this awesome Cure For Cancer (TM)”.
What is your exact complaint here? Are you saying that “Nature Reviews Drug Discovery” is too low-key a journal for the linked article? Do you think that 2018 is too late as a publication date? Do you think the NY Times should have published a big article about that development in 2018?
You have it in the wrong order, as is also evident from the date on your link.
I am not assuming that the technology was developed for the pandemic. I am aware that it existed prior to the pandemic.
What is your exact complaint here? Are you saying that “Nature Reviews Drug Discovery” is too low-key a journal for the linked article?
The mRNA work is well published and there are highly cited papers going back many years.
The section of my blog post you are commenting is about transfer. Publishing in Nature is not transfer. Transfer is deploying the technology.
I am not complaining that they failed to publish research papers.
As to why you personally did not find out before the pandemic: It’s not your field of study, and people actively pursue many promising avenues for new drugs, many of which never pan out.
I am not a medical expert in any sense of the word, but I do tend to learn about successfully deployed technology.
I am pretty sure that even medical doctors were unaware that we had the ability to produce new vaccines in weeks from DNA data dumps.