Skip to content
Vaccines in the past typically work by using a weakened virus or a purified viral protein from the virus to stimulate our immune response. But, the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines we’ve been hearing about work a bit differently. Instead of containing viral protein, the vaccines contain mRNA, which instructs your cells to make the viral protein that will stimulate the immune system. Let’s dig deeper.
Understanding mRNA and the central dogma of biology
In order to understand how the COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna or Pfizer/BioNTech work, we first should get to know mRNA. mRNA stands for “messenger RNA” because that’s what it is, a messenger or an intermediate between DNA and protein. In the central dogma of biology, genetic information flows from DNA to mRNA to protein and it is these proteins that perform a variety of actions in an organism.
There are many analogies out there used to explain the central dogma of biology, but because I’m into baking, I’ll go with making the sponge for a cake. FIrst, I’ll need a recipe. The recipe (DNA) holds the instructions to make the cake and it lives in my cookbook (the genome). Since I don’t want to take the cookbook into the kitchen and get flour and batter all over it, I handwrite a copy of the recipe to bring with me. This copy is like the mRNA. Finally, I’ll use the copy of the instructions to make my cake (protein). (more…)
A dog’s nose knows, and it might just know when you’re emitting the scent of infectious disease. With its 300 million scent receptors, the dog’s most recent detective work involves COVID-19.
Dogs are identifying COVID-19 cases in airports
You might have seen the many news stories about dogs sniffing out COVID-19 at the Helsinki airport and at airports in the UAE. It takes about 10 seconds per sample. And the best part? No nasal swabs needed. (more…)
Five years ago, Tasha Sturm shared a photo of an agar plate full of colorful bacterial colonies in the shape of a handprint. Perhaps you remember seeing it on social media. This bacterial handprint came from her son’s hand after playing outside. But before the handprint photo, Sturm had been growing a collection of photos of bacteria and fungi. (more…)
Don't want to read but want to get some microbiology in your life? Or maybe you need something to get your through your long day in the lab. Here are some of my favorite podcasts with microbial mentions. If you have another suggestion, feel free to drop it in the comments below! (more…)
In 1933, Ruth Ella Moore (1903-1994) became the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. in the natural sciences. The Columbus, Ohio native received her Ph.D. in bacteriology from Ohio State University, where she also finished her B.S. and M.A. Her dissertation was published in two parts: Studies on Dissociation of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, and A New Method of Concentration of the Tubercle Bacilli as Applied to Sputum and Urine Examination. At the time, tuberculosis was the second largest cause of death and a cure was still more than a decade away.
She later became a professor at Howard University in 1940, and department head in 1952, the first woman to head any department at Howard. One of her first acts as Head was to change the department name from Department of Bacteriology to Department of Microbiology. She retired in 1973.
Here, let’s take a look at some of Moore’s work in microbiology. (more…)