Pfizer and the German biotech company BioNTech had initiated a partnership in mid-2018 to develop an mRNA vaccine for seasonal flu. This technology injects small sections of mRNA contained in tiny lipid “nanoparticles.” mRNA is the genetic material that carries instructions for a cell to make specific proteins, and if you can instruct a cell to make proteins found on the surface of a virus (an antigen), the body’s own immune system can mount a response to them and, potentially, provide immunity from any virus with that protein on its surface.
