@f28e93c3 - okay, that makes sense.  Thanks!   The Wired story says 

"her bosses at UPenn felt mRNA had shown itself to be impractical and she was wasting her time. They issued an ultimatum: if she wanted to continue working with mRNA she would lose her prestigious faculty position, and face a substantial pay cut" 

which sounds like it's written from and for people outside academia.  Who were her "bosses", exactly?  Maybe she was existing on soft money from some team of PIs?

 I imagine people will start investigating and writing up this story more carefully now that she's so famous.