constantly say things that are unreasonable and seemingly crazy,” says Noubar Afeyan, founder of venture firm Flagship Pioneering and chairman of Moderna. What if, he asked his researchers, microorganisms living in our guts–the “microbiome”–could help cure cancer? What if red blood cells could transport drugs along with oxygen? What if not all viruses were bad? And what if, he asked a decade ago, messenger RNA (mRNA) could be the basis of therapeutics?
Image: MICHAEL PRINCE FOR FORBES
