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Audio Interview

Recent key advancements in research on RNA-based therapies

Published on November 30, 2025   20 min

A selection of talks on Vaccines

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Interviewer: We've invited Dr. John Cooke to join us today to discuss some of the key recent advancements in RNA-based therapeutics. Dr. Cooke is a professor and chair of the Department of Cardiovascular Sciences at the Houston Methodist Research Institute and the director of the center of RNA therapeutics in the institute. Dr. Cooke, it's great to have you with us. Prof. Cooke: Thank you, Eyal. It's wonderful to be on the show. I appreciate it. I'm calling you from the Texas Medical Center, where we're ensconced in our new research facility, Dynamic 1, and our RNA program is underway. Some exciting programs in cardiovascular regeneration as well as cancer personalized RNA cancer vaccines, which we'll talk about a little bit later. Interviewer: Brilliant, and congratulations first of all. To set the scene before we dive into recent developments in the field, can you provide a top-line overview of what mRNA-based therapies are and how they work? Prof. Cooke: Sure. I like to think of RNA therapeutics as two different arenas. There is coding RNA. RNA that encodes a therapeutic protein or an antigen, and we're most familiar with that form of RNA, because that's the RNA that went into our arms with the COVID-19 crisis. That mRNA vaccine is very effective. It's fairly safe and about six billion people across the world have been vaccinated with the mRNA vaccine. It saved a lot of lives and was well tolerated. That's the RNA that encodes a protein. I'll be talking most about that today.

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Recent key advancements in research on RNA-based therapies

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