The breakthrough science of mRNA medicine | Melissa J. Moore

TED Health

TED

Health & Fitness, Fitness, Shoshana Ungerleider, Medicine, How To Be Healthier, Ted Shoshana, Ted Talks Health

4.2 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 19 July 2022

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The secret behind medicine that uses messenger RNA (or mRNA) is that it "teaches" our bodies how to fight diseases on our own, leading to groundbreaking treatments for COVID-19 and, potentially one day, cancer, the flu and other ailments that have haunted humanity for millennia. RNA researcher Melissa J. Moore -- Moderna's chief scientific officer and one of the many people responsible for the rapid creation and deployment of their COVID-19 vaccine -- takes us down to the molecular level, unraveling how mRNA helps our bodies' proteins maintain health, prevent disease and correct errors in our genetic code. "We have entered an entirely new era of medicine," Moore says. Stay tuned after the talk to hear from the hosts of the popular podcast Unbiased Science, Dr. Jessica Steier and Dr. Andrea Love, in conversation with our host Shoshana on what they think the end of the pandemic could actually look like.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ted Audio Collective
0:07.8	This is Ted Health, I'm Dr. Shoshana Unger-Lighter.
0:10.8	Today, one of the standout talks from this year's Ted Conference, Melissa J. Moore, who's
0:16.3	the Chief Scientific Officer at Moderna.
0:18.9	She'll help us understand how the development of the mRNA COVID vaccine gives a glimpse
0:23.6	into a future where medicine is personalized to the individual patient.
0:28.0	Afterwards, I'll talk with Dr. Jessica Steyer and Andrea Love.
0:32.0	They're the hosts of the popular podcast, Unbiased Science, and they'll help us think about
0:36.8	the impact of the vaccine, what it's like to be science communicators, and get us imagining
0:42.2	what the end of the COVID pandemic might look like.
0:48.4	Now, many of the people watching this talk by now will have had one, two, three, or even
0:55.2	four doses of a messenger RNA vaccine.
0:58.4	With billions of these shots now in arms, it's clear that this new way of making vaccines
1:04.0	is both remarkably safe and incredibly effective.
1:08.1	But did you know it's not the vaccine itself that's keeping you safe?
1:13.1	It's actually you, because the human body has amazing powers to both prevent and cure disease
1:20.8	by making its own medicines. You just need to know what medicine to make.
1:26.7	And that's what your vaccine gave you, simply a set of instructions for how to protect yourself
1:33.0	against SARS-CoV-2. Now, vaccines are only the beginning.
1:38.5	As I said before, the advent of mRNA vaccines is heralding in an entirely new era of medicines.
1:48.4	mRNAs give us the ability to not only prevent disease, but also treat previously intractable
1:56.2	disorders. But before I get to that, let's talk about really what is this new way of medicines
	...

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