How mRNA technology is altering vaccine treatments - CBS News

"We thought, 'If we don't start now, then by the time we get to the fall, we won't have an updated vaccine in case those variants really become a significant concern and start reinfecting people.".

"We designed that vaccine really overnight, and started manufacturing, and had it, and moved it into clinical trials within a month," he replied.

It's really just an instruction molecule, kind of like a software program for your cells.

It just sends instructions about what the virus looks like to your immune system.

So just like a software program, or a Word document, we can simply edit something, change it, and then manufacture it very, very quickly.".

She started on a cancer-fighting immunotherapy drug – and she was offered the chance to get the experimental mRNA vaccine designed to prevent a relapse.

Franciosi said, "When you weigh the possible benefits from something like this, I just had to go for it.".

He said the idea is that the vaccine can help generate the right mix of cancer-fighting immune cells: "It's definitely too soon to say I'm optimistic, but the jury's still out.

In the meantime, Moderna's CEO Stephane Bancel thinks mRNA technology can revolutionize a shot millions of us already get each year: the flu shot. .

It's a decades-old approach, and, Bancel said, it's part of the reason they're not always effective: "You have to start very early on, so you have to guess which strain will be in the U.S.

"So, we're gonna just throw everything out the window and give you a good, high-efficacy vaccine every winter," Bancel said.

It's not clear how this will turn out, but what is clear is that Moderna (which grew from a tiny startup to a household name over the course of a year) is betting on the speed and versatility of mRNA technology. 

Just like we updated our vaccine in January for the new variants of concern in SARS-CoV-2, we can actually update it to go after all of the other viruses that we're looking at just as quickly

Aubrey said, "It seems like you have a lot to live for."

"I feel very fortunate," Franciosi said