US-based biotech firm Moderna, Inc. has announced the launch of the mRNA Platform Incubator Network, a pioneering initiative in collaboration with key Australian organisations with specialist expertise in translational and pharmaceutical science, early phase clinical trials and regulatory science.

The mRNA Platform Incubator Network aims to advance mRNA medicine, foster scientific excellence in clinical translation in Australia and further the therapeutic potential of the mRNA platform.

The Platform Incubator Network brings together Australia’s leading minds in mRNA research from Monash University and Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS), the Peter Doherty Institute of Infection and Immunity – a joint venture of The University of Melbourne and The Royal Melbourne Hospital, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, the Murdoch Research Children’s Institute and Doherty Clinical Trials Limited.

Moderna’s Regional Research Centre in Melbourne will serve as a hub for the Platform Incubator Network enabling regular cross-functional collaboration, exploration and execution of translational research projects, contributing new insights to the broader scientific and regulatory community through publications and discussions and supporting development of the next generation of researchers. Examples of how the Network intends to pool its collective knowledge include the development of scientific strategies to overcome specific clinical platform challenges and oversee operational implementation of these strategies through non-clinical and computational quantitative pharmacology investigations, as well as translational clinical trials, led from Australia.