Looking Ahead: What Does The Future Have In Store For Nucleic Acid-Based Therapies?

Nucleic acid-based medicines have been in the spotlight thanks to the successful commercialization of the two SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) mRNA vaccines. While these major breakthroughs have ignited renewed interest in nucleic acid medicines, the road to wide adoption will present many challenges.

Aaron Larsen, the Technical Head for the Nucleic Acids Franchise with Resilience, began working with nucleic acids back in 2012 in Jack Szostak’s lab at Harvard University where he evolved oligonucleotides to better understand the origins of life. Following his post-doctoral studies, Aaron joined Moderna in 2015 to work on all aspects of mRNA science, production, purification, analytics, formulation, and delivery, and subsequently led the mRNA Production/Science group at Beam Therapeutics.

We recently sat down with Aaron to hear his thoughts about the future of these vaccines and therapeutics.