Meet Sophia Upshaw, a volunteer in a coronavirus vaccine trial
Scientists are racing to develop and test vaccines that can protect people from the coronavirus. One particularly swift effort, sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, involves a vaccine called mRNA-1273, made by pharmaceutical company Moderna, Inc., in Cambridge, Mass. Traditional vaccines use a weakened or inactive version of viruses or their parts to spark an immune response. In contrast, mRNA-1273 contains genetic material called messenger RNA, which carries instructions for making one of the coronavirus’s proteins. The idea is that human cells will take those instructions and make this viral protein. Then, the body will learn how to produce antibodies that target the protein, jump-starting an immune reaction against the real thing, should it ever be encountered (SN: 2/21/20). Two research sites — Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle and Emory University’s Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit in Atlanta — have begun testing the safety of the vaccine in 45 participants. Science News spoke to Sophia Upshaw, a 22-year-old...