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Hackers have posted a whole new mine of retro-engineered data on Github.
And by “hackers” I mean “scientists”. And that treasure trove of “reverse engineered data” is the mRNA sequence that powers Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine.
Two Stanford scientists were able to extract Modern’s entire COVID-19 vaccine mRNA sequence and code on Github, a website popular with software developers looking to host and share the source code.
An mRNA sequence is basically a set of instructions telling your body what to do. In the case of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, it tells your body what to produce to fight COVID-19. Essentially, it’s the code that executes the vaccine.
As pointed out by the point of sale who first noticed the code posted on GitHub, the entire repository on the site is only 4 pages long. Plus, the first half of the post is just a scientists’ snapshot of what they did. The last two pages of the article on Github contain the complete mRNA sequence. Just two pages!
Scientists, Andrew Fire and Massa Shoura, explained part of the process in an email to Motherboard. For example, they did not technically reverse engineer the vaccine to obtain the mRNA sequence.
Fire and Shoura also say they were able to carry out their work without removing a single vaccine from distribution. All the two scientists needed was a small amount of leftovers in vials that are usually thrown away after an individual is vaccinated. They even asked for permission to keep the used vials from the FDA.
Scientists say they contacted Moderna before releasing the mRNA sequence but have not received a response. According to Fire and Shoura, however, the FDA made clear the decision “to share the footage with the community.”
It should be noted that while public access to this information is ideal for research and education purposes, it will not facilitate any home-brewed version of the COVID-19 vaccine. There is still a lot of work to be done to make vaccines that remain inaccessible to the public.
As Motherboard mentions, COVID-19 vaccines have already been reverse engineered. At the end of 2020, the founder of PowerDNS, an open source software provider, was able to BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine using only information available online.
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