AIBN personalised mRNA cancer vaccine

You've probably heard of mRNA from its use in COVID-19 vaccines, but what is it exactly and could it be used to treat illnesses other than COVID?

Watch Dr Seth Cheetham, Deputy Director of AIBN’s BASE facility explain how mRNA therapeutics can be tailored to a single individual - manufacturing a drug as individual as someone's own fingerprint.

mRNA is present in all our cells - it's an information carrying molecule that takes the information from the hard copy of our genes and encodes other molecules called proteins, which are the main functional molecules of cells.

When used in in therapeutics, mRNA sends signals to your cells to get them to produce particular molecules to fight the illness and can be applied quite broadly against major illnesses such as cancer.

The newly established mRNA cancer vaccine hub AIBN has the infrastructure and expertise to be able to manufacture personalised cancer vaccines, but further support for Dr Cheetham's research will provide funding to characterise a particular kind of cancer - such as lung or breast cancer - and then design safer and more effective cancer therapies.