biden admin to target mrna cancer treatment In its bid to fight cancer, the Biden administration this week announced plans to enlist the mRNA technology made famous by COVID-19 vaccines.
The idea is to create a platform of mRNA technologies that could turn the immune system against cancer and other diseases.
In this case, messenger RNA-based technology would be used to turn off and on multiple genes within immune cells involved in cancer, auto-immune diseases, organ transplant rejection and chronic conditions like long COVID. By contrast, existing vaccines use mRNAs to produce specific proteins to be targeted by the immune system the spike protein of the virus that causes COVID-19, or, with cancer vaccines under development, ones on the surface of tumors.
The new research project led by Emory University in Atlanta will receive up to $24 million from the administration's Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H).