Skip to Main Content

Moderna — once “obsessed with secrecy” — is about to give some of its technology to researchers at Harvard, the company and university announced Thursday morning.

Harvard’s medical school will receive a $1.2 million grant from Moderna to launch the Alliance for RNA Therapies for the Modulation of the Immune System, or ARTiMIS. The agreement will give Harvard immunologists access to some of Moderna’s scientific materials.

advertisement

The partnership is an attempt to answer some basic, unanswered questions about how the human immune system works, in hopes that the research will spur new drugs aimed at manipulating that system. While the collaboration’s success doesn’t hinge on bringing a new drug to the company’s pipeline, Moderna’s leaders say that is one obvious potential result.

Unlock this article by subscribing to STAT+ and enjoy your first 30 days free!

GET STARTED