Team leader
Keiji Itaka
Objectives of the team
The mRNA research team is involved in the design/development of mRNAs optimized for specific uses of vaccines and pharmaceuticals.
Description of research and development by the team
mRNA-based vaccines/therapeutics are completely new drug modalities in which mRNA molecules are not drugs but templates used by the body to produce proteins that serve as vaccines or therapeutics. By simply modifying the mRNA design, the body can synthesize any protein, which can be rapidly developed into vaccines against new viruses. The research topic of this team is the design, production, and functional evaluation of such mRNAs. With a focus on these tasks, this team strives with other teams to transform mRNAs into effective and safe vaccines against viruses that are likely to cause pandemics in the future.
Tasks of the team
- 1Establishment of a system to obtain high-purity mRNAs rapidly and stably
- 2Development of a technology to reduce the immunogenicity of mRNAs, which is a potential cause of adverse reactions
- 3Creation of novel mRNA designs to control the efficiency and duration of translation into proteins
- 4Development of cell/target tissue-selective mRNAs
- 5Development of excellent human resources specializing in mRNA-based drug discovery
