mRNA vaccines: a transformative technology with applications beyond COVID‐19

Overmars, Isabella; Au‐Yeung, George; Nolan, Terence M; Steer, Andrew C

doi:10.5694/mja2.51620

Topics

Infectious diseases

Environment and public health

General medicine

mRNA vaccines can be used for broader infectious diseases prevention and cancer therapy

Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine technology, decades in development as a therapy for cancer and for prevention of infectious diseases but not yet realising a licensed product,1 was rapidly implemented to accelerate the creation of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) vaccines. Yet their spectacular success against SARS‐CoV‐2 provides just a glimpse of their full potential. This article describes how mRNA vaccines are made and how they work, and their potential for further infectious disease prevention and cancer therapy.

1 Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Melbourne, VIC
2 Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, VIC
3 University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC
4 Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC

Correspondence: belle.overmars@mcri.edu.au

Acknowledgements:

We thank Hilary Bruce for their help finalising the figure.

Competing interests:

No relevant disclosures.

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