More than 38 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in Ontario as of Oct. 8, with 23,002 reports of adverse reactions, an incidence of 0.06 per cent, Public Health Ontario says

New evidence confirms COVID-19 vaccines are overwhelmingly safe::More than 38 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in Ontario as of Oct. 8, with 23,002 reports of adverse reactions, an incidence of 0.06 per cent, Public Health Ontario says

    • nickwitha_k (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      I studied this stuff back in uni, is really fascinating, though, I’m more familiar with DNA amplification via Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR).

      If you’re interested, I’ll give some details here and a link to a neat video. Effectively, there is an enzyme in our cells called DNA Polymerase. It literally scans a strand of DNA and copies it. In PCR, they use a solution of nucleotides (building blocks of DNA) and the DNA Polymerase extracted from a heat-loving microbe. The DNA to be copied (amplified) is added, and then the temperature maintained at the enzyme’s optimal temperature (higher than usual for other organisms). The solution is allowed to “stew” for a set amount of time, then, filtered to separate the DNA (lots of copies of the original) from everything else.

      A similar process can be done using an RNA polymerase (possibly modified) in order to amplify mRNA. So, once the template is printed, it gets put in the solution and RNA polymerases go brrrrrr.

      https://youtu.be/wJyUtbn0O5Y?si=Gkz8B87iY-35GvuZ