Moderna co-founder was once told to find another job

Then researcher's drug delivery idea wasn't taken seriously at first but he never gave up

- Lucas Tan

drug delivery His ground-breaking method was initially scoffed at by the scientific community, but his relentless experimentation eventually laid the bedrock for cancer treatment and led to the founding of Covid-19 vaccine giant Moderna.

Professor Robert Langer recounted his journey in the drug development industry at the 11th Global Young Scientist Summit, held at the Singapore University of Design and Technology on Jan 18.

Prof Langer, 74, graduated with a doctorate in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). However, he applied for post-doctorate jobs in the medical industry because of his passion to help people. Unsurprisingly, no one would hire him because his field was unrelated to medicine.

But he remained committed to his calling, and was advised by an older scientist to try Dr Judah Folkman, a Harvard University professor and surgeon-in-chief at Boston Children's Hospital who who was known for hiring people with unusual backgrounds.

Prof Langer landed a job as Dr Folkman's assistant and began working at the hospital in 1974.

Dr Folkman was studying metastasis, the process of how cancerous tumours grow and spread throughout the body. He theorised that tumours stimulated angiogenesis, or the growth of blood vessels, to provide them with nutrients and allow them to spread.

He tasked Prof Langer to find a method to deliver angiogenesis-inhibiting drugs to the tumour.

"I spent years in the laboratory experimenting with different materials and different designs to deliver the drugs. I found 200 different ways not to get this done." said Prof Langer at the summit.

"But eventually, I was able to make tiny little nanoparticles which could deliver molecules of any size, including nucleic acids and mRNA."