By Michael Le Page
An artists representation of a T-cell (blue) attacking the new coronavirus
Iliescu Catalin/Alamy
A COLLECTIVE wave of excitement swept around the world when Pfizer and BioNTech announced positive early results from their coronavirus vaccine trial last week. Now, biotechnology firm Moderna has announced even better findings (see Moderna coronavirus vaccine trial produces best results yet). These are no ordinary vaccines: they could be the first messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines to be approved. If this technology lives up to its promise, it could bring huge benefits for healthcare, not just for tackling the coronavirus.
“Part of the reason why the results from Pfizer are so …