Autoimmune diseases affect about 1 in 10 people and are a leading cause of death in women under 65 in high-income countries. There are about 80 autoimmune conditions and currently none are curable.

WEHI director Professor Ken Smith said the new partnership would help accelerate medical research through sharing resources and knowledge.

“mRNA medicines are truly transformative, and we are thrilled to collaborate with Moderna on this program to advance pre-clinical research working towards new treatments that could improve health for millions of people,” Prof Smith said.

The collaboration will see WEHI’s autoimmune scientists work together with Moderna’s immune therapeutics team, sharing expertise and receiving preclinical research support.

Dr Kate Jeffrey, Moderna’s vice president and global head of immune therapeutics and genomic sciences, said: “We are committed to realizing the full potential of our mRNA platform to deliver the greatest possible impact to patients.

“Partnering with a leading Australian institution like WEHI allows us to combine our expertise in mRNA science with their world-class research capabilities to redefine therapies for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.”

The pilot program, the first of its kind in Australia and exclusive to WEHI, has been named MATE (mRNA for Autoimmune Therapeutics of Excellence).

Through the program, WEHI researchers can access Moderna’s mRNA platform – an innovative research tool – to advance autoimmune research.

The scalable and flexible system will expedite the development and testing of potential mRNA-based therapies in a research setting.

Largely known for its mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine, Moderna has spent more than a decade developing its mRNA platform to advance the promise of mRNA medicines.

The new collaboration hopes to progress mRNA science, to harness the platform’s potential to eventually positively impact the lives of some of the 1.4 million people in Australia living with autoimmune diseases.

The program’s key focus areas include:

• Treatments for diseases with high unmet need – like Graves’, lupus, coeliac and inflammatory bowel diseases, as well as severe allergies.
• Exploring ways to train the body’s defences – teaching the immune system to tolerate specific things that trigger it.
• New discoveries about how the immune system works – finding ways to control immune cells, like B and T cells, using mRNA technology and seeking long-lasting treatments.

–

Header image L-R: Professor Vihandha Wickramasinghe, WEHI laboratory head and Inaugural Moderna Australia Fellow, Dr Kate Jeffrey, Moderna’s vice president and global head of immune therapeutics and genomic sciences, Professor Ken Smith, WEHI director, and Felicia Pradera, director of the Regional Research Centre for Respiratory Medicines and Tropical Diseases at Moderna.