Cancer trials expand

BREAKTHROUGH: SCIENTISTS PROBE MRNA'S POTENTIAL TO FIGHT DISEASE

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Inside a lab in the French city of Orleans, scientists are testing out the limits of molecules in our body called messenger RNA - best known for being used in Covid vaccines - in the hopes of finding a breakthrough treatment for a deadly cancer.

Messenger RNA, or mRNA, are molecules that carry genetic information from the DNA in every cell in the body to create specific proteins.

"For cancer, this message will stimulate the patient’s ability to fight tumours," said Dimitri Szymczak, project manager of French research institute Inserm's Art lab in Orleans.

While mRNA was discovered in the early 1960s, it rose to global prominence when scientists used it to swiftly develop next-generation vaccines during the Covid pandemic, earning the medicine Nobel prize in 2023.