Dana-Farber Cancer InstitutemRNA Takes Center Stage in COVID-19 Vaccine and Cancer Research

Messenger RNA (mRNA) is in the spotlight right now as the basis of the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines for COVID-19. Thanks to this newfound prominence, its profile has been raised as a powerful tool in cancer research as well. As a courier of genetic information and protein assembler, mRNA can tell scientists which genes are active within a cell and produce the proteins that alert the immune system to the presence of cancer.