mRNA Vaccine
A vaccine that delivers synthetic messenger RNA into cells, instructing them to temporarily produce a viral protein that trains the immune system.
An mRNA vaccine uses synthetic messenger RNA wrapped in lipid nanoparticles to deliver a temporary genetic instruction into a patient's cells. The cells then produce a single, harmless viral protein — typically a surface "spike" protein — which the immune system learns to recognise and respond to.
The first widely-deployed mRNA vaccines were the COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna in 2020-21. The platform builds on decades of work by Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, who shared the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
The synthetic mRNA never enters the cell nucleus and cannot integrate into DNA. It breaks down within days. Beyond infectious disease, mRNA technology is being applied to cancer vaccines, autoimmune therapies, and rare genetic conditions.