5 ms·
They brew them. A DNA sequence that encodes the intended mRNA strand is embedded into a bacterial plasmid. Bacteria take in that plasmid and reproduce, making a
by maxerickson 6y ago
They brew them. A DNA sequence that encodes the intended mRNA strand is embedded into a bacterial plasmid. Bacteria take in that plasmid and reproduce, making a bunch of plasmids with the mRNA encoding DNA embedded in them. The bacteria are killed and broken open and the plasmids are purified.
The DNA sequence is then cut out of the plasmids and transcribed into mRNA.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/health/pfizer-coronavirus-vaccine.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/health/pfizer-coron...
I bet getting that batch of bacteria to grow and make lots of the desired plasmids is a nice trick to pull off.
- janekm 6y agoThat's the easy part (literally possible in a home laboratory: https://youtu.be/2hf9yN-oBV4 https://youtu.be/2hf9yN-oBV4), the encapsulant and microfluidics for getting the mRNA into it seems to be the hard part.
- maxerickson 6y agoliterally possible in a home laboratory Getting sufficient production of the target isn't easy. The guy at your link includes 'countless failures' in his intro!
- KirillPanov 6y agoWow, very surprised to hear that those mRNA come from actual living, metabolizing, (albeit single-cell) organisms. Why do they do it that way? When you order DNA plasmids from places like Addgene the stuff they ship you is chemically synthesized using enzymes rather than and entire complete living cell, right? I would've thought Pfizer would do the same thing and then transcribe that DNA into mRNA. Is it because of the massive quantities of material they need to produce?