• charliespider@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    1 year ago

    It’s an absolute game changer.

    People tried to compare the COVID vaccine development time to previous vaccines without understanding the difference in how the mRNA vaccines are made. You essentially just need to sequence the virus’s genome (which is miraculously easy to do these days because of other amazing people’s incredible efforts), then target a protein from the virus’s exterior and use that snippet in the mRNA vaccine. This radically reduces the time it takes to develop a vaccine as well as increase it’s effectiveness because of the control you have over the vaccine’s selected target.

    • CareHare
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      Does CRISPR help the development of the vaccines in any way?

      • charliespider@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        1 year ago

        My understanding is that that’s what’s used to extract the targeted protein marker from the virus genome, so not only does it help, it’s a key component in developing an mRNA vaccine.