Full disclosure - I have a long-term (sub $10K) holding of Moderna shares. The best explanation I've heard for it; is that given by Stephane Bancel (Moderna's

Full disclosure - I have a long-term (sub $10K) holding of Moderna shares. The best explanation I've heard for it; is that given by Stephane Bancel (Moderna's CEO) to the (excellent) Bio Eats World podcast in the episode "The Machine That Made the Vaccine" (https://bio-eats-world.simplecast.com/episodes/moderna-covid-vaccine-mrna-technology-45xaNSr_ https://bio-eats-world.simplecast.com/episodes/moderna-covid...) His explanation goes something like this [0] ... 1) If developers have target protein(s) they know they need to get the body's cells to synthesise to fight disease. Then the key advantage of mRNA technology is that it makes activating this a _turnkey_ operation. 2) With Covid-19, humanity got lucky, the target protein(s) were identified very early in the pandemic, and they have remained useful [1]. These, combined, allowed them to construct a viable vaccine quickly (days) before they had any physical access to the virus. [3] These new announcements are for diseases where targets are similarly well-identified (and promising from a therapeutic pov). I think the potential for this technology to improve the human condition is, to put it mildly, incredible. [0] I'm an SW engineer, and it's been over a year since I listened to the podcast, so apologies to anyone if I mangle this. [1] For some diseases, this is apparently not the case, e.g. AIDS [3] Of course it then needed the same standard, thorough acceptance process, albeit accelerated by running parts in parallel, before being released to the general public.