Jeff Coller is a professor of RNA biology and therapeutics at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He became a scientist inspired by his childhood National Geographic experiences about NASA's Voyager probes to Jupiter and Saturn. He has published many papers on mRNA, including its role in vaccines and therapeutics. The US has cut funding for mRNA vaccine research by $500 million. This decision was announced in August by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Coller called this disappointing and scary. mRNA vaccines have been in development for decades.