Magazine
January-February 2026
January-February 2026
Volume: 114 Number: 1
Vaccines based on messenger RNA (mRNA) are nearly always administered by injection. But what if mRNA therapeutics could instead be packed into pills? In “Messenger RNA Can Do More for Medicine,” Wei Tao and Xiangang Huang argue that an mRNA pill would eliminate many barriers to more widespread adoption of mRNA vaccines. The pill form would also open new opportunities for care, such as mRNA therapeutics that could coax a patient’s own cells to produce proteins to counter chronic health conditions. But first, researchers must learn how to usher fragile strands of mRNA through the gastrointestinal system’s powerful defenses and into intestinal cells. The authors designed a method that protects mRNA (pink) within fatty bubbles known as lipid nanoparticles (purple). They then pack these lipid nanoparticles into pills that shed layers of protection at the precise moments necessary for mRNA to reach its target. (Illustration by Joana Carvalho.)
In This Issue
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Weathering Space
James Welsh, Robert Peter Gale, Andrew Karam
Engineering Medicine
Efficient routes and good luck will not be enough to protect humans from the deadly radiation they will face when venturing beyond the Earth−Moon system.
The Art and Wonder of Little Beasts
Brian W. Ogilvie
Art Biology Environment
Insects and other small creatures were a favorite subject of early modern European naturalists.
