Researchers want to train the body to fight diseases using programmable vaccines

Not long ago, Dr. Jasdave Chahal had a great idea and a big problem. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology virologist was driven by a dream to use messenger RNA to train bodies to defend themselves against disease. With some considerable effort, Chahal managed to program RNA to create disease-specific proteins called antigens that would induce an immune response, produce antibodies, and prep the immune system for future disease. But these RNA were big — too big. He couldn’t efficiently transmit them to cells. Enter Chahal’s good friend and MIT associate, Dr. Omar Khan, a chemical engineer who had a solution to Chahal’s problem – customize nanomaterials that were big enough to carry the messenger RNA and compact enough to inject directly into muscle tissue, just like traditional vaccines. Khan’s nanomaterials package the messenger RNA as nanoparticles, which can enter cells, mimic viral infections, raise cellular alarms, and use the instructions contained within the...