LOGOLOGOLOGOLOGO
  • About us
    • What we do
    • Who we are
      • Governance
      • Staff
      • Vacancies
  • Members
    • EuropaBio Members
    • About Membership
  • How we work
    • Healthcare Biotechnology Council
      • Patient BioForum
      • Study – Impact of the EU’s General Pharmaceutical Legislation
    • Industrial Biotechnology Council
      • EFIB
      • Microorganisms
    • National Associations Council
    • SME Platform
    • Biomanufacturing Platform
      • Biotechnology in our Lives
  • Activities
    • 25 Years of Innovation
    • The EU Biotech Act
    • European Biotech Week
    • EU Projects
      • PRIMED Project
      • APROVALS Project
  • News & Events
    • News
    • Events
  • Library
Become a member
✕

1999: Messenger RNA (mRNA) patented in relation to therapeutic applications

16/06/2021

Nominated by:

Nominees:

Dr Ingmar Hoerr, co-founder CureVac

Professor Katalin Karikó, University of Pennsylvania and BioNTech

The existence of mRNA was hypothesized early in the days of DNA breakthroughs in the 1960s.  Research from the 1990s started to reveal its potential as a therapeutic tool, making use of its ability to create a specific protein, which then could act as a vaccine or to enable cell differentiation.  This building pipeline for many different proteins creates the potential for diverse medical applications.

Researchers across the world were involved, with two notable European contributors into the scientific base upon which we now see mRNA therapies emerging.

Ingmar Hoerr was one such researcher in this field, with a PhD thesis in 2000 from the University of Tübingen entitled ‘RNA vaccine for the induction of specific cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTL) and antibodies’.  He presented research that the fragile and short lived mRNA could be stabilised, creating an opportunity to explore its potential as a therapeutic intervention.  His research showed that stabilised mRNA could stimulate the immune system and in 1999, he applied for his first patent, before founding CureVac in 2000, alongside colleagues from his laboratory.

After an early research career in mRNA through the 1990s, Hungarian researcher Karolin Karikó, working in the US at the University of Pennsylvania, determined how a reduced immune response could be created to mRNA, resulting from nucleoside modifications.  Work was undertaken with Drew Weissman and published in articles from 2005, with the pair also holding associated patents granted from 2006 for non-immunogenic mRNA.

The road to commercial development with mRNA

Both Hoerr and Karikó followed their scientific discoveries into a commercial pathway.  Hoerr was a co-founder of CureVac, whilst Karikó founded a small US company but subsequently followed her mRNA patents through to BioNTech after the IP was licensed to several other companies, including Moderna.

The role of mRNA in Covid vaccines crystallised only following the emergence of the pandemic, however clinical development for other applications was already underway for this novel class of drugs long before 2020.  Diseases being targeted through companies active in mRNA include:

Cancer: Clinical trials are underway in prostate, melanoma, colorectal, head and neck, ovarian, pancreatic and multiple types of solid tumour.

Infectious disease: Covid-19 (See entry here), seasonal influenza, Zika virus and rabies, with pre-clinical work progressing in malaria, lassa/yellow fever, HIV, Epstein-Barr and tuberculosis.

The world can expect many more diseases to come into the spotlight of mRNA as scientific knowledge progresses, with the visibility of its role in Cobid-19 as a vital catalyst for global investment and attention.

 

Share
Alexandra Simionca
Alexandra Simionca
EBIO-white

EuropaBio represents corporate and associate members across sectors, plus national and regional biotechnology associations which, in turn, represent over 5000 biotech companies, 4600 out of them are SMEs.

Contact us

Extra links

Members
Staff
Privacy policy
Legal & cookies
Events
Newsroom

Become a member

Media pack

© 2025 Europabio. All Rights Reserved. Designed by EYAS
Become a member

Algal Omega 3

Algal Omega-3 is an innovative feed product for aquaculture. It reduces the impact on climate change by 30-40% compared to fish oil and saves 60 tons of wild fish for every ton of Algal Omega-3 used.

Cheese

Cheese is a vegetarian product thanks to biotechnology. Biotechnology is also essential to produce lactose- or cholesterol-free cheese, as well as alternative proteins.

Clothes

Clothes made from alternative fibres produced by microorganisms can be 8x stronger than steel, 100% recyclable, biodegradable and replace fossil-fuel based or resource-intensive textiles.

Vitamin B2

The biomanufacturing of Vitamin B2 led to the reduction of 75% of fossil raw materials and 50% operating costs, compared to the chemical process. Vitamin B2 is used in the food, feed or healthcare sectors.

Detergents

Enzymes and biosurfactancts are alternative ingredients that improve the performance of detergents, while leading to water and energy savings and reductions in CO2 emissions and water toxicity.

Insulin

Insulin is one of the most widely known biopharmaceutical. Biotechnology revolutionised its manufacturing process and led to the development of new types of insulin through r-DNA technology.