Work on mRNA vaccines is also
expanding to certain cancers, food
and environmental allergies, and au-
toimmune diseases. Positive results
against ATTR amyloidosis, a fatal
condition that involves the liver,
have already been produced in a
phase 1 clinical trial. Although pro-
tein-based medications for certain
illnesses are expanding quickly,
large doses are typically required,
and production is often difcult
and expensive; mRNA delivery of
therapeutic proteins could help.
The approach has already worked
in animals for issues as disparate as
bone repair and asthma, and hu-
man clinical trials are underway.
The Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency is even experiment-
ing with mRNA delivery of mono-
clonal antibodies that could be tai-
lored for previously unidentified in-
fectious diseases, with the goal of
supplying reliable manufacturing
of such remedies within 60 days.
The concentrated COVID-19
work has also helped make mRNA a
leader in nucleic acid therapeutics—
approaches that can produce nearly
any protein made by a specific cell.
The technique is starting to be ap-
plied, and it could fight diseases in
more convenient, less invasive and
less expensive ways. For example,
the fda has approved gene therapy
for sickle cell anemia, and it is work-
ing in the U.S., although it requires
marrow to be extracted from a per-
son’s bone, treated and reinserted;
mRNA therapy could be delivered
to marrow with a straightforward
injection into a person’s arm. If that
works, sickle cell treatment could
be greatly expanded in countries
where the condition is widespread.
In similar fashion, mRNA thera-
peutics could revolutionize treat-
ment of many infectious diseases
in developing countries, greatly im-
proving health-care equity. I am
collaborating with labs around the
world. Thai investigators at the vac-
cine center at Chulalongkorn in
Bangkok and I have made a Thai
COVID vaccine and established a
quality manufacturing center to
produce it for Thailand and seven
surrounding low- and middle-in-
come countries. I am doing similar
work in Africa and eastern Europe;
South America will be next.
Plenty of hurdles remain, in-
cluding the creation of a better sup-
ply chain for delivering raw mRNA
vaccine and materials needed for its
production worldwide, as well as
improvements that could reduce
the dosage a person needs to re-
ceive. Yet the ease of mRNA pro-
duction should enable most coun-
tries to make their own medica-
tions, as long as they can attract
and retain researchers who can de-
velop subsequent therapeutics that
in turn keep domestic, high-quality
manufacturing sites operating.Illustration by James OlsteinBillionaire Space
Tourists Became
Insufferable
LAST SUMMER, at a time when the pandemic had
strained many people’s finances, inflation was rising
and unemployment was still high, the sight of the
richest man in the world joyriding in space hit
a nerve. On July 20 Amazon founder Jeff Bezos
rode to the edge of space onboard a rocket built by
his company Blue Origin. A few weeks earlier Pro-
Publica had revealed that he did not pay any
income taxes for two years, and in other years
he paid a tax rate of just 0.98 percent. To many
watching, it rang hollow when Bezos thanked
Amazon’s workers, whose low-paid labor had
enriched him enough to start his own rocket com-
pany, even though
Amazon had
quashed workers’
efforts to unionize
several months
before. The fact that
another billionaire,
Richard Branson,
had also launched
himself onboard his
own company’s
rocket just a week
earlier did not help.
COVID changed
many people’s will-
ingness to shrug off
the excesses of the rich. The pandemic drew an
impossible-to-ignore distinction between those
who can literally escape our world and the rest of
us stuck on the ground confronting the ills of Earth:
racism, climate change, global diseases. Even sev-
eral members of Congress expressed their disap-
proval of Bezos. “Space travel isn’t a tax-free holi-
day for the wealthy,” said Representative Earl
Blumenauer of Oregon. Bezos and Branson putting
the spotlight on themselves as passengers served
to downplay the work that hundreds of scientists
and engineers at Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic
had put into designing, building and testing their
spacecraft. It also masked the reality that advances
in private spaceflight really could eventually pay off
in greater access to space for all and more oppor-
tunities for scientific research that could benefit
everyone. All their flights did was give the impression
that space—historically seen as a brave pursuit
for the good of all humankind—has just become
another playground for the 0.0000001 percent.Clara Moskowitz is a senior editor at Scientific American who
covers space and physics.