Applying synthetic biology to a COVID-19 vaccine…
COVID-19 is propelling the biotech sector into the spotlight. As a result, we’re at the start of a multiyear bull market in biotechnology. The pandemic has opened the doors for radically new approaches to vaccines and therapies, many of which were not taken that seriously before.
Take synthetic biology, for example. This is a therapeutic approach that seeks to mimic systems already found in nature. A company called Moderna is one of the leaders in this space.
Moderna made the news back in March when it brought a potential COVID-19 vaccine to Phase 1 clinical trials. What makes Moderna’s approach unique is that its vaccine uses messenger RNA (mRNA) to produce an immune response.
How does that work precisely?
The genetic code determines an organism’s traits and bodily functions. It’s a “genetic blueprint.” But the genes themselves don’t do the work. They require proteins to carry out specific functions.
mRNA is the link between genes and proteins. The information contained within genes is transcribed into mRNA. That mRNA then tells the body what proteins to produce to carry out the genes’ functions.
Moderna’s vaccine mimics this process. It uses synthetic mRNA to tell the body to produce proteins that look like COVID-19. That helps the body produce antibodies to fight the virus and build immunity.
Tech Legend Jeff Brown Releases His Top Three “Penny IPOs” for 2020…
This is bleeding-edge work. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has never approved an mRNA vaccine… so there’s no precedent for this synthetic biology approach.
In other words, the technology is brand new. That means it needs to be on our radars as technology investors.
If successful, synthetic biology would open the door to a wide range of therapies for many different diseases. And that’s important because the development time for these therapies is extremely fast.
Moderna designed its vaccine in just 42 days. That’s incredible. It normally takes years to get to a working vaccine.
So this approach would rapidly accelerate therapeutic development in the biotechnology space. And so far, the results are promising…
Moderna’s Phase 1 clinical trial went well. Its vaccine got FDA approval to move into a Phase 2 trial. It plans on testing 600 volunteers in Phase 2. The company plans to have full trial results by early summer.
This is something I’ll be watching very closely these next few months. Moderna’s Phase 2 trial is not only important for COVID-19, but it could also be the catalyst that brings synthetic biology to the forefront of the industry.
AI
Market Data 
Markets 
