Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ How mRNA went from a scientific backwater to a pandemic crusher

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

This is less a story about the vaccine and more a story about the academic research behind the vaccine. And it raises questions about a system that demands that you have to obtain funding in order to keep your academic position. "They told me that they'd had a meeting and concluded that I was not of faculty quality," said Katalin Karikó, the Hungarian immigrant who made the breakthroughs necessary to make mRNA a viable solution. "When I told them I was leaving, they laughed at me." It makes me wonder how many others are in the same position she was, working doggedly on key problems, unable to support that will come only after they've made the discovery. Image: Wikipedia.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Nov 13, 2024 8:27 p.m.

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