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Breakthrough science behind COVID vaccine not a ‘surprise’ for Vanderbilt researcher

Even though mRNA vaccines are a new type of vaccine created to protect against infectious diseases like COVID, those involved in the science says the development did not come as a surprise. It’s not new science for those, like Robert Carnahan, who are familiar with mRNA’s history. “For 20 years, people have been looking at this. And definitely in the last 10 years, it has been actively working on as a platform for delivering proteins, or vaccine, into the human body.”

As Assistant Director of Vanderbilt’s Vaccine Center, Carnahan says researchers spend their life’s work hoping to discover the key that unlocks the answers to something scientific.