full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Kathryn A. Whitehead: The tiny balls of fat that could revolutionize medicine

Unscramble the Blue Letters

flainly, one more ingredient. This one is a polymer cllaed polyethylene glycol. So let's call it PEG. That's much easier. PEG is a water-loving molecule. So it surrounds the liipd nanoparticle and it holds it all together. You can think of the other three lpdiis as the box and the bubble wrap for the mRNA, and the PEG as the packing tape. You may have heard in the news about a tiny fraction of people that have allergic responses to the vaccine. There is some eednicve that PEG could be contributing to these allergic reactions. And that's because people are routinely exposed to PEG in cosmetic and holsouehd products, and some people have already doeevlped aiotedbins against PEG. But why would this haeppn to some people and not to others? It turns out that every person's immune system is different, and just the same way that some people are allergic to ltaex, other people are allergic to PEG. It's important to keep in mind, however, that PEG has had a long history of safe use as part of FDA-approved drug formulations, and these vaccine allergies could be caused by things other than PEG. More research is needed to get to the btotom of these side effects.

Open Cloze

_______, one more ingredient. This one is a polymer ______ polyethylene glycol. So let's call it PEG. That's much easier. PEG is a water-loving molecule. So it surrounds the _____ nanoparticle and it holds it all together. You can think of the other three ______ as the box and the bubble wrap for the mRNA, and the PEG as the packing tape. You may have heard in the news about a tiny fraction of people that have allergic responses to the vaccine. There is some ________ that PEG could be contributing to these allergic reactions. And that's because people are routinely exposed to PEG in cosmetic and _________ products, and some people have already _________ __________ against PEG. But why would this ______ to some people and not to others? It turns out that every person's immune system is different, and just the same way that some people are allergic to _____, other people are allergic to PEG. It's important to keep in mind, however, that PEG has had a long history of safe use as part of FDA-approved drug formulations, and these vaccine allergies could be caused by things other than PEG. More research is needed to get to the ______ of these side effects.

Solution

  1. antibodies
  2. developed
  3. finally
  4. household
  5. evidence
  6. lipid
  7. latex
  8. called
  9. happen
  10. bottom
  11. lipids

Original Text

Finally, one more ingredient. This one is a polymer called polyethylene glycol. So let's call it PEG. That's much easier. PEG is a water-loving molecule. So it surrounds the lipid nanoparticle and it holds it all together. You can think of the other three lipids as the box and the bubble wrap for the mRNA, and the PEG as the packing tape. You may have heard in the news about a tiny fraction of people that have allergic responses to the vaccine. There is some evidence that PEG could be contributing to these allergic reactions. And that's because people are routinely exposed to PEG in cosmetic and household products, and some people have already developed antibodies against PEG. But why would this happen to some people and not to others? It turns out that every person's immune system is different, and just the same way that some people are allergic to latex, other people are allergic to PEG. It's important to keep in mind, however, that PEG has had a long history of safe use as part of FDA-approved drug formulations, and these vaccine allergies could be caused by things other than PEG. More research is needed to get to the bottom of these side effects.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
lipid called 3
mrna vaccines 2
bubble wrap 2
similar role 2
ionizable lipids 2
immune cells 2

Important Words

  1. allergic
  2. allergies
  3. antibodies
  4. bottom
  5. box
  6. bubble
  7. call
  8. called
  9. caused
  10. contributing
  11. cosmetic
  12. developed
  13. drug
  14. easier
  15. effects
  16. evidence
  17. exposed
  18. finally
  19. formulations
  20. fraction
  21. glycol
  22. happen
  23. heard
  24. history
  25. holds
  26. household
  27. immune
  28. important
  29. ingredient
  30. latex
  31. lipid
  32. lipids
  33. long
  34. mind
  35. molecule
  36. mrna
  37. nanoparticle
  38. needed
  39. news
  40. packing
  41. part
  42. peg
  43. people
  44. polyethylene
  45. polymer
  46. products
  47. reactions
  48. research
  49. responses
  50. routinely
  51. safe
  52. side
  53. surrounds
  54. system
  55. tape
  56. tiny
  57. turns
  58. vaccine
  59. wrap