PhD Dissertation Graduate Student Literature Seminar – Terezie Cernosek, PhD Student– “Poly(A) Tails in mRNA Vaccines: Challenges and Analytical Methods”

Please join us for Terezie Cernosek’s PhD Dissertation Graduate Student Literature Seminar Presentation on:

Messenger RNA (mRNA) technology has gained significant traction in the biopharmaceutical space over the last decade for applications that include vaccination approaches for infectious diseases, gene editing, and protein replacement therapies. The unique structure of mRNA molecules includes a 5′ cap, coding region, and 3′ untranslated region (UTR) with a poly(A) tail. The poly(A) tail is crucial for mRNA stability, translation, and regulation and is added during the in vitro transcription (IVT) step in the manufacturing process or enzymatically after synthesis. As a result, appropriate characterization of the poly(A) tail integrity is considered a critical quality attribute (CQA), applied to release testing to ensure the safety and efficacy of the product. Measuring the poly(A) tail length and consistency requires robust analytical methods. Analytical procedures such as reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR), northern blotting, and liquid chromatography-based techniques have previously been used for such analysis. However, many of the existing assays are often time-consuming, labor-intensive, and have limited sensitivity and specificity, making them difficult to use for routine quality control testing. Research is ongoing to optimize these assays and develop novel approaches to provide more accurate, sensitive, and robust measurements of this CQA.

Date:  Thursday, May 4, 2023

Time: 1:30 – 2:30 p.m.

Location: Building 121, Room 1113