Making Personalized Cancer Vaccines Takes an Army--of Robots

When Melissa Moore was tinkering around with RNA in the early 90s, the young biochemist had to painstakingly construct the genetic molecules by micropipette, just a few building blocks at a time. Inside the MIT lab of Nobel laureate Phil Sharp, it could take days to make just a few drops of RNA, which ferries a cell's genetic source code to its protein-making machinery. She didn't imagine that nearly three decades later she'd leave academia to work for a company that cranks out the stuff 20 liters at a time. Moore heads up RNA research at Moderna Therapeutics. Worth an estimated $7 billion, it's one of the most valuable private healthcare companies in the world, according to CB Insights.