[c54]

I think the theory behind it is straightforward enough (and indeed, Moderna was founded 10 years ago with this sort of mRNA vaccine as their explicit goal), but the practice is more complicated.

Figuring out what sequence of mRNA will be the right one to get a cell to produce the right antibodies for the job, getting that sequence sliced out of the viral RNA, getting that all into a form where it can be absorbed by cells and not just instantly degrade are all nontrivial tasks.

The devil’s in the details: compare to the field of software or cpu engineering... seems straightforward enough to just have more instruction decoders, but due to complexities only ditching x86 has actually made it possible for Apple to do this.