Synthetic mRNA, the ingenious technology behind the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, might seem like a sudden breakthrough, or a new discovery. Like so many breakthroughs, this apparent overnight success was many decades in the making. The dream of mRNA persevered in part because its core principle was tantalizingly simple, even beautiful — the world’s most powerful drug factory might be inside all of us. Armed with years of mRNA clinical work built on decades of basic research, scientists solved the mystery of SARS-CoV-2 with astonishing speed.

The Atlantic
March 29, 2021