Wednesday 26 / March / 2025
Washington DC: The United States has undergone several changes in foreign and domestic policy since US President Donald Trump took office in January. Scientists who rely on federal grants for their work have been particularly hard hit by new regulations and cuts introduced under the administration.
Already, researchers across several fields, including health and gender identity, climate and environment, and medical research disciplines have had research financing taken away.
Recently, research on vaccine hesitancy suffered this fate. More than 30 grants for researching public mistrust of immunisations have been terminated, according to several US media outlets.
Amid these cuts, the role of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — a vocal vaccine sceptic — looms large.
According to KFF Health News, acting National Institutes of Health (NIH) director Matthew Memoli requested details on "grants, contracts or collaborations" on mRNA vaccine research be provided to Kennedy and the White House.
Similar requests reportedly preceded the administration's decision to scrap support for vaccine hesitancy research.
Researchers speaking on condition of anonymity also told US media that NIH officials advised them to remove mRNA references from their grant applications.
But a stop to mRNA research would have far-reaching consequences since the technology is at the forefront of current medical developments.
mRNA, the basis for two COVID vaccines
mRNA technology's biggest claim to fame is as the basis for the COVID-19 vaccines created by BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna within a year of the coronavirus pandemic. The researchers behind the technology were also awarded a Nobel Prize in Medicine.
Instead of using an inactivated version of the virus as with many other vaccines — and AstraZeneca's first-released COVID jab — the BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna shots contained mRNA, or messenger RNA.
mRNA is a genetic molecule occurring in multicellular organisms, including plants, animals and fungi. It acts as a genetic script — giving a template for the body to produce proteins that perform specific and essential functions.
COVID vaccines containing an mRNA script prompt the body's cells to produce proteins identical to the spike proteins on the outer shell of the coronavirus. It means the vaccinated person’s immune system has a target to identify and immediately attack the pathogen in the event of an infection.
These vaccines were highly effective in protecting against severe symptoms and likely saved countless lives.
Claims by conspiracy theorists that the shots altered the DNA of recipients made many people distrustful of the vaccines. This fear is unfounded, since mRNA vaccines don’t enter the nucleus of cells, where our primary genetic information is stored.
Malaria mRNA vaccines now in development limbo
The only malaria vaccine currently in wide use ― known as "RTS,S" or "Mosquirix" ― is not an mRNA shot.
But mRNA-based malaria vaccines are in development. They could help fight the mosquito-borne disease that kills roughly 600,000 people every year, between two-thirds and three-quarters of whom are children under five.
In 2023, a research team from New Zealand and Australia revealed they had developed an mRNA shot
that was successful in animal models. The vaccine stimulates immune cells in the liver, where the malaria-causing Plasmodium parasite travels after it enters the bloodstream.
It's a big leap, of course, from animal models to human medical trials, and then to a vaccine. The process can take years.
Still, experts believe mRNA vaccines are particularly suited to tackle malaria because they can be adjusted quickly in case of mutations in the disease. That's also a plus for the mRNA flu vaccines currently in development.
German pharmaceutical company BioNTech was running phase one and two trials of its own mRNA malaria vaccine, meaning the shot was tested on humans. But as of March 5, 2025, this was halted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US, where the trials were taking place.
BioNTech was requested to make changes and is working with the FDA to address those requests.
An mRNA cancer vaccine?
mRNA vaccines are also being explored for several other diseases, including hard-to-treat cancers.
Pancreatic cancer has a high mortality rate ― nine in ten patients don't survive. But researchers in the US are working on a vaccine that would keep the cancer from returning once the initial tumor has been surgically removed.
A recent phase one clinical trial showed that, in some patients, the vaccine activated tumor-specific immune cells that remained in the body up to nearly four years after treatment.
The pancreatic cancer vaccine, which is being developed cooperatively by BioNTech and US company Genentech, had to be personalised for each trial participant. It causes the body's cells to produce neoantigens, a specific protein found only on that patient's tumor. This trains the immune system to recognize cancer cells as something foreign that need to be fought.
The shot is still in development; results from the trial were published in the journal Nature in February 2025.
If the US were to put a halt to all federal funding for mRNA research, it's unclear to what extent developments like those of cancer or malaria vaccines would continue.
