'He's in our hearts': Family and friends still seek answers one year after Nathan Wise’s disappearance
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Soon after a new coronavirus began spreading around the world, little-known vaccine developer Moderna began working with the U.S. National Institutes of Health to create a vaccine using a new technology.
That vaccine is now one of the pillars of the U.S. COVID-19 response, with 130 million doses administered just six months after regulators authorized it for use.
Moderna is now testing its vaccine in younger people as well as potential boosters that may be needed in the future - along with vaccines and treatments for other diseases - all using similar technology based on genetic code called messenger RNA.
The Associated Press spoke with company president Dr. Stephen Hoge, who oversees Moderna's research.
Q: WILL COVID-19 BOOSTER SHOTS BE NEEDED IN THE FUTURE?
A: I believe that there's going to be a chronic booster need. I definitely think they're prudent to plan for. None of us want to be in a situation next November where we have to go into another lockdown. We've been updating our vaccine to make sure it boosts you back up. That's the variant booster that we're going to have available in the fourth quarter.
Q: HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO DEVELOP NEW VACCINES TO FIGHT VARIANTS?
A: With the first version of the vaccine, we did it in about five months, but we had to do the large clinical trials. We won't have to do that now. For a booster targeting variants, we could do it in about three months.
Q: WHAT MAKES MESSENGER RNA SO USEFUL?
A: Messenger RNA is really just an instruction manual. It's no longer a medicine that somebody made. It's instructions to your body. We can put anything we want into that manual to tell it what to make, such as the spike protein on the COVID-19 virus. If you want to change a paragraph, you just cut and paste.
Q: WHAT ELSE CAN MRNA TREAT?
A: There's no disease where we shouldn't be able to eventually have a medicine.
Q: WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON?
(Vaccines for) viruses like influenza and cytomegaloviruses and other viruses that are hard to go after, like HIV. Half of our pipeline is in therapeutics. We have programs in cancer and heart disease.
Q: WHAT WILL MODERNA BE DOING 10 YEARS FROM NOW?
We'll be focused on cancer, infectious diseases and autoimmune diseases. In cancer, we have a couple programs in mid-stage studies. We are trying to prevent recurrence of melanoma. We're partnering with AstraZeneca to develop messenger RNA that could be injected into people undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting, to grow heart cells. If we can do that, that would be transformative.
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
Amazon's paid subscription service provides free delivery for online shopping across Canada except for remote locations, the company said in an email. While customers in Iqaluit qualify for the offer, all other communities in Nunavut are excluded.
The fire burning near Fort McMurray grew from 25 hectares to 5,500 hectares over the weekend.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin began a Cabinet shakeup on Sunday, proposing the replacement of Sergei Shoigu as defence minister as he begins his fifth term in office.
Police are searching for a male suspect after a man was “slashed in neck” on Sunday morning in downtown Toronto and died.
There were some scary moments for several people on a northern Ontario highway caught on video Thursday after a chain reaction following a truck fire.
Health Canada announced various product recalls this week, including electric adapters, armchairs, cannabis edibles and vehicle components.
English, history, entertainment, math and geography: high school trivia teams could be quizzed on any of it when they compete at the Reach for the Top Nationals in Ottawa in June.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.