IT·Science Talk

A personalised mRNA vaccine for melanoma! This is why I got into science!

I know I should be cautious, and the GONOM article lays out the caveats very clearly, but I'm allowed to be excited for one post, right?!

A vaccine designed around the mutations in each patient's own tumour, and in a Phase 3 trial with more than 1,100 people, it cut the risk of recurrence or death by 42% when combined with Keytruda. A few years ago this kind of personalised medicine felt like science fiction to me.

My lab works on something totally unrelated (soil microbes, glamorous I know), but this is the kind of result that makes everyone in the department talk at lunch. Is anyone else here following the mRNA cancer work closely? Where do you think it goes next?