TED Talks Daily
The tiny balls of fat that could revolutionize medicine | Kathryn A. Whitehead
05 Aug 2021
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
It's TED Talks Daily. I'm Elise Hu. And I just spent the last few days at our TED Monterey 2021 conference where engineer Catherine A. Whitehead unpacked just how cool the science is behind mRNA. mRNA made vaccines against coronavirus possible.
In her talk from the TED stage, she explains what was so tricky about getting mRNA into our cells, which makes the fact that it's working in our bodies that much more awesome.
What if I told you that the pandemic will save the lives of millions of people?
Chapter 2: What innovative technology is being used to deliver mRNA vaccines?
It's a difficult thing to consider, given how many loved ones we've already lost. But throughout the course of human history, massive public health crises have resulted in innovation in healthcare and technology. For example, the Black Death gave rise to the Gutenberg Press, And the 1918 flu pandemic led to modern vaccine technology. The COVID-19 pandemic has and will be no different.
Just look at our vaccines, normally developed over many years, and the mRNA vaccines were deployed in a mind-blowing 11 months. How is that even possible? It was possible because scientists have been working for many years to get us to the point where we could use mRNA quickly in an emergency situation.
Specifically, we've been working on how to help mRNA with its biggest problem, which is that it doesn't normally go to the right places inside of our bodies. Fortunately, we got around that problem just in time, and I'd like to tell you about the technology that we used to do it.
When mRNA is administered, it's injected into our muscles or our bloodstream, but we actually need it to go inside of our cells. Unfortunately, mRNA is fragile, and our bodies will destroy it before it goes very far. You can think of mRNA like a glass vase that you'd like to send in the mail. Without a box and bubble wrap, it'll break long before it's been delivered.
And without an address on the box, your postal delivery service will have no idea where to take it. And so if we're going to use mRNA as a therapeutic, it needs our help. It needs protection, and it needs to be told where to go. And that's where I come in. For over five decades, scientists and engineers like myself have been creating the shipping materials for nucleic acid drugs like DNA and RNA.
Through trial and error, we've created packages that deliver intact faces to the wrong address, that deliver to the right address but with a broken face, packages that get ripped apart by attacking dogs, and packages that throw out the mail carriers back. It's taken many years to get the science right. Let me tell you the result. These tiny balls of fat that we call lipid nanoparticles.
Let me tell you what they are and how they work. So first of all, nano just means really, really small. Think of how small a person is compared to the diameter of the Earth. That's how small a nanoparticle is compared to the person. These nanoparticles are made up of several fatty molecules called lipids. Fat is an awesome packing material, nice and bouncy.
Interestingly, our cells are also surrounded by fat to keep them flexible and protected. Years ago, scientists had the idea to create lipid nanoparticles that would act like a Trojan horse. Because the lipids in the nanoparticle look similar to the membranes that surround our cells, the cells are willing to bring the nanoparticle inside, and that's when the mRNA is released into the cell.
So what exactly are the lipids in these nanoparticles? There are four ingredients in addition to the mRNA, and I'll tell you about each one. First, there's a lipid called a phospholipid. This is the primary ingredient in our cell membranes, which are the walls of fat that separate the insides of our cells from everything that surrounds them. Phospholipids have a head that likes water,
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