Interview with Stéphane Bancel

<p>Last year <em>Distillations</em> talked to people who have <a href="../../../distillations/pandemic-perspectives" data-cke-saved-href="/distillations/pandemic-perspectives">special insight into the coronavirus crisis</a>—biomedical researchers, physicians, public health experts, and historians. In this episode we talk to Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, a biotech company that developed one of the three emergency-approved COVID-19 vaccines in the United States. The Moderna vaccine is unique in that it uses a new technology that has been decades in the making called messenger RNA, or mRNA.<br /> <br /> Bancel reflects on the development timeline of the vaccine: from learning about the virus while reading the <em>Wall Street Journal</em> in 2019 to the moment he finally got his own shot at a Moderna facility. He talks about the promise of mRNA and what’s ahead for Moderna.</p> <h2>Credits</h2> <p><strong>Host:</strong> <a href= "https://www.sciencehistory.org/profile/alexis-j-pedrick" target= "_self" data-cke-saved-href= "https://www.sciencehistory.org/profile/alexis-j-pedrick">Alexis Pedrick</a><br /> <strong>Senior Producer:</strong> <a href= "../../../profile/mariel-carr" data-cke-saved-href= "/profile/mariel-carr">Mariel Carr</a> <br /> <strong>Producer:</strong> <a href= "../../../profile/rigoberto-hernandez" data-cke-saved-href= "/profile/rigoberto-hernandez">Rigoberto Hernandez</a><br /> <strong>Researcher:</strong> <a href= "../../../profile/jessica-wade" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="/profile/jessica-wade">Jessica Wade</a><br /> <strong>Audio Engineer:</strong> <a href="https://www.podbrain.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href= "https://www.podbrain.org">Jonathan Pfeffer</a></p>