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A comment on In Test Tubes, RNA Molecules Evolve into a Tiny Ecosystem. Parent comment

Re:In Test Tubes, RNA Molecules Evolve into a Tiny Ecosystem by innomatics on Friday May 06, 2022 @08:04AM (#31284164)
That's a nice explanation.

If I were him I'd ask why not just print the spikes at the vaccine factory and inject them?

TBH I'm not sure if it's easier/cheaper to use the 3D-printers in our cells, or its more about accurate delivery to the right places, or something else.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:In Test Tubes, RNA Molecules Evolve into a Tiny Ecosystem by civilized on Friday May 06, 2022 @08:33AM (#31284378)
Some educated guesses:

1. We don't have "ribosomes at scale"

2. We don't have a way to separate the ribosome product from the factory

3. Keeping the product stable is hard

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:In Test Tubes, RNA Molecules Evolve into a Tiny Ecosystem by mrguyorama on Friday May 06, 2022 @12:34PM (#31287125)
Another interesting reason is that if you do it the mRNA way, you will continue to internally produce those spike proteins to train your immune system for a week or two
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Re:In Test Tubes, RNA Molecules Evolve into a Tiny Ecosystem by ch4s3 on Friday May 06, 2022 @10:27AM (#31285508)
Basically it takes longer to produce them at scale, and they've been less effective at preventing covid infection in clinical trials.
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Re:In Test Tubes, RNA Molecules Evolve into a Tiny Ecosystem by arrosenberg on Friday May 06, 2022 @11:18AM (#31286185)
The non-mRNA vaccines do work like that. They use big vats of bacteria as bioreactors and ship the finished product.

Long term, mRNA is a more flexible solution - just ship the blueprints and let people make it themselves.

[ Parent | on HN ]