Undergraduate-level biology students' application of central dogma to understand COVID mRNA vaccines

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has underscored the importance of mRNA vaccines. The mechanism for how such vaccines work is related to the core biology topic of the central dogma, which students often misunderstand despite its importance. Therefore, we wanted to know whether students can apply their biology knowledge of central dogma to the real-world issue of how mRNA COVID vaccines work. Accordingly, we asked college biology students of different expertise levels how the COVID vaccine worked. Later, we cued them by telling them the vaccine contains mRNA and asked them what the mRNA does. We used thematic analysis to find common ideas in their responses. In the uncued condition, fewer than half of the students used central dogma-related ideas to explain what was in the vaccine or how the vaccine worked. Inaccurate ideas were present among all groups of biology students, particularly entering biology majors and non-biology majors, including the idea that the COVID vaccines contain a weakened, dead, or variant form of the COVID virus. After students were cued, many more students in all expertise groups expressed central dogma-related themes, showing that students could apply the knowledge of central dogma if prompted. Advanced biology majors were much more likely to state that the vaccines code for a viral protein, indicating their advanced application of central dogma concepts. These results highlight inaccurate ideas common among students and show changes in the ability to apply knowledge with student expertise level, which could inform future interventions to support student learning about vaccines and central dogma.

Keywords: COVID; COVID vaccines; central dogma; mRNA; misconceptions.

Fig 1

Diagram of how the COVID vaccine works in relation to central dogma. The vaccine delivers the mRNA of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2’s (SARS-CoV-2′s) spike protein to body cells. The cell translates the mRNA into the spike protein, a step that involves the central dogma. The spike protein is then moved to the cell surface, where antibodies and immune cells can interact with the spike protein to produce immunity. Image courtesy of the National Human Genome Research Institute (https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/fact-sheets/Understanding-COVID-19-mRNA-Vaccines).

Fig 2

What students of different expertise levels believe is in the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, at the level of (A) most common themes and (B) most common codes. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001 by chi-square analysis.

Fig 3

Ideas students of different expertise levels used in describing how the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine works, without cuing, at the level of (A) themes and (B) codes. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001 by chi-square analysis.

Fig 4

Ideas students of different expertise levels used in describing how the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine works, with cuing, at the level of (A) themes and (B) codes. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001 by chi-square analysis.

Fig 5

Changes in the ideas of individual students in cued and uncued conditions at the level of (A) themes and (B) codes. “Maintained” means the idea was used in both conditions, “Added” means the idea was used in the cued but not the uncued condition, “Never used” means the idea was not used in either condition, and “Removed” means the idea was in the uncued but not the cued condition.