Better fat bubbles could power a new generation of mRNA vaccines

As any dietician will tell you, some fats are good — and that is surely true of the little fatty balls found in two of the world’s most widely used COVID-19 vaccines.

Known as lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), these tiny bubbles of fat encase messenger RNA (mRNA) that encodes a viral protein, helping ferry it into cells and shield it from destructive enzymes.

The technology was key to the success of COVID-19 shots from Moderna and the Pfizer-BioNTech collaboration. But as beneficial as these fats are, there is plenty of room for improvement.

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