When I was a new graduate student, I "test-drove" Malone's lab, along with three other labs, in order to choose one in which to do my graduate work.
Malone was not working on mRNA at all. He gave me a project to investigate the molecular events of lipid membrane fusion between cell membranes and lipid micelles. He assigned me a hundred or so papers to read on it, as well, so that I spent hours just reading in the lab. He was also working on a product to compete with Lipofectin or Lipofectamine for delivery of plasmids into cells. In addition, he was studying the HIV virus, I think with the goal of eventually developing a vaccine. And, finally, he was trying to develop a system to treat cystic fibrosis by inserting normal copies of the defective gene into lung cells. This was, as he explained, a very challenging task since the lung mucus lining contains abundant nucleases.
So, yeah, add me to the list of researchers who have worked with Bob Malone and report that he had little to do with mRNA vaccine technology. This technology was not the result of a single researcher toiling away in the lab like in some science fiction show; it resulted from decades of work by hundreds or thousands of researchers.
Posts like your is why I value the Free Republic. Thank you for your comment. You made a great contribution!