Covid-19 vaccines raise hope for cancer, throw open new field of medicine

[PeteS in CA]

Covid-19 vaccines raise hope for cancer, throw open new field of medicine

https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/covid-19-vaccines-raise-hope-for-cancer-throw-open-new-field-of-medicine-120121300314_1.html

The first vaccines against Covid-19 aren’t just a landmark in the fight against the pandemic. They’re also the stepping stone for an unconventional technology that could one day defeat other ailments that have eluded doctors, from cancer to heart disease.

The shots from Moderna Inc. and a partnership of Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE use genetic material called messenger RNA to effectively transform the body’s own cells into vaccine factories. The approach had never been used outside of clinical experiments, and just how well it worked against the coronavirus stunned even some of its most enthusiastic backers.

Now, with one vaccine vaccine having gained U.S. clearance and the other close behind, the pandemic validation could wrench open a whole new field of medicine.

“We are now entering the age of mRNA therapeutics,” said Derrick Rossi, a former Harvard University stem-cell biologist who helped found Moderna in 2010. “The whole world has seen this. There is going to be increased investment and increased resources.”

BTW, the technology underlying the AstraZeneca vaccine isn't the traditional dead or weakened virus approach. It uses the same method used in gene splicing therapies, which are also a fairly new thing. Multiple medical technologies got a boost from the efforts to produce vaccines and treatments.

[Gefn]

I’d support anything that could find a cure for cancer.

It’s a b***h and a horrible way to go.

[skeeter]

Hey maybe Biden can finally claim success in his long-standing promise to cure cancer.