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November 18, 2025—Personalized vaccines for cancer are on the way, thanks to mRNA technology. Plus, a huge impact crater was discovered in China, and a tick-borne red meat allergy has killed a New Jersey man. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | Clostridium botulinum. CHRISTOPH BURGSTEDT/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images | | - In recent weeks, at least 23 infants in the U.S. have been infected with botulism in an outbreak linked to ByHeart powdered infant formula. Experts explain how the bacteria get in formula. | 4 min read
- A man who died in 2024 after eating a burger at a New Jersey BBQ had alpha-gal syndrome, a disease triggered by tick bites that causes people to develop anaphylactic reactions to red meat. He is the first confirmed death from the condition. | 2 min read
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Scientists have discovered a massive asteroid impact crater in China. The bowl-shaped depression is some 900 meters wide—more than eight times the length of a football field, and it likely formed about 12,000 years ago. | 2 min read | | | Personalized Cancer Vaccines | At least 50 active clinical trials are well underway in the U.S., Europe and Asia using mRNA vaccines to target more than 20 types of cancer. These shots share a similar premise: to prime the immune system to recognize abnormal proteins linked to mutations in an individual's tumor cells. One trial for a personalized vaccine against melanoma has now reached phase 3, the last step before a medicine can be approved for public use. Such vaccines could be available as early as 2028, with mRNA vaccines for other cancers to follow. How we got here: Vaccines for cancer that use mRNA have been under development for decades. During the pandemic, researchers quickly pivoted and targeted the technology on the virus that causes COVID-19. The scientists who worked on mRNA for years knew it was safe to be administered as a vaccine and that most of the genetic information in an mRNA vaccine can stay the same no matter which disease you're fighting. Now that the pandemic has waned, mRNA technology is being used to develop vaccines for a long list of illnesses, including malaria, flu, tuberculosis and norovirus. And cancer. Stubborn target: Despite treatment advances, cancer remains broadly incurable and is a leading cause of death as life expectancies improve across the world. But because cancer vaccines must be personalized, the biggest challenge is scaling up their production. Some pharma companies are banking on automation and robotics to make such vaccines for large numbers of patients. Future promise: One particularly deadly cancer type that might benefit from this type of vaccine is pancreatic. In most other cancers, tumors could have as many as 10,000 distinct proteins on the surface of their cells; you couldn't possibly target every one using mRNA tech. But in pancreatic cancer, researchers have realized, tumors present with a smaller number of mutations, which might improve the odds of picking a suitable antigen to target. An early phase 1 trial of an mRNA vaccine showed strong results, with half of participants still in remission after treatment. A phase 2 clinical trial is already underway. "If you can teach the immune system to recognize the proteins in, say, pancreatic cancer, perhaps that could provide a blueprint" for other cancer types, says Vinod Balachandran an oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center who led the phase 1 mRNA trial against pancreatic cancer. | | | | |
NEWSLETTER SPONSORED BY YAKULT | | For 90 years, Yakult has been at the forefront of scientific research, focusing on gut microbiota, probiotics, and immunity to enhance human health. Through its innovative development of food and cosmetics, Yakult promotes global wellness, offering probiotic-based solutions in 40 countries and regions worldwide. Learn more. | | | | |
- Solve this jigsaw puzzle of our March 1919 cover image, if you can. The assembled image shows a camera for filming rapidly moving objects—in this case, a record-breaking motorboat.
| | Personalized medicine has long felt more aspirational than truly impactful, but mRNA technology is rapidly moving the ideal into reality. The same platform that helped blunt the global toll of COVID is now being engineered to train the immune system against the unique mutations in an individual's cancer. It's early, but the shift is unmistakable: medicine is finally learning to meet disease on a person-by-person basis. | | —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor
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