Way to Cure Disease through Messenger RNA

Moderna and BioNTech weren’t household names until last year. The company’s research into Messenger RNA quickly came into the spotlight as the coronavirus spread around the world. Many countries’ best chance at ending the pandemic lies with the effective vaccines these companies developed.

The biotechnology incubator that founded Moderna launched on Monday another company focused on the therapeutic potential of Messenger RNA, the single-stranded courier of genetic information. Laronde comes equipped with $50 million in funding from Flagship Pioneering and a high goal to upend the ways diseases are treated, through the use of so-called eRNA.

In cells, Messenger RNA gives the instructions for what proteins need to be made. These instructions don’t last very long, though, because to maintain order and guard against outside threats like viruses, cells will chew up stray or unused pieces of genetic material.The is linear whereas eRNA comes as a ring.In a ring structure, eRNA doesn’t have loose ends for enzymes to latch onto and start the dismantling process, meaning that it could, in theory, remain active for longer and help protein expression last weeks or months.

Diego Miralles, Laronde’s CEO and a partner at Flagship asked people to imagine if people could give a tiny bit of eRNA, and people could then manufacture their own self-healing proteins in their own body. Just think about how that would change how we think about medicines and what medicines are.To Avak Kahvejian, Laronde’s founding CEO and a general partner at Flagship, the company’s launch is a major milestone. A biochemist by trade, Kahvejian’s PhD concentrated on Messenger RNA translation. He joined Flagship about a decade ago, and in late 2017 got Laronde off the ground