Last spring, we reported on the possible fall from grace of messenger RNA technology within the US administration. This was despite the Nobel Prize awarded to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, and despite the millions of lives saved by RNA vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic. So, how did it end?
Soon after co-discovering the double helix, Francis Crick coined the term “central dogma of biology” to illustrate the flow of genetic information within biological systems. The basic idea is simple: DNA is the king of the cell, proteins are its major workforce, and RNA is a sort of a middle manager. He later admitted that dogma was a poor word choice for a rule that has exceptions. Indeed, he became one of the proponents of the RNA world hypothesis, where RNA is the primordial substance in the evolutionary history of life on Earth. We can only guess what the great British scientist might say about RNA taking the stage today.