'Any protein you can imagine, it can deliver': AI will help discover the next breakthrough in RNA, says Nobel Prize winner Dr. Drew Weissman

RNA, a molecular cousin of DNA, was thrust into the spotlight as the basis of the world's first-ever COVID-19 vaccines. Two key developers of the tech behind the shots won a Nobel prize for their efforts in 2023.

Now, one of those Nobel laureates — Dr. Drew Weissman of the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine — aims to catapult RNA research to new heights. He's helping to launch a new RNA research hub that will use artificial intelligence to help train scientists who are new to the field, guide their experiments and add their results back into the algorithm, creating a feedback loop.

Called the Artificial Intelligence-driven RNA Foundry (AIRFoundry), the National Science Foundation-funded center aims to speed innovation in the RNA field, fueling advances in medicine and many other scientific disciplines.

Live Science spoke with Weissman and Daeyeon Lee, the AIRFoundry's director, about the new research center and the future of RNA across the Sciences. Lee is also a co-founder of InfiniFluidics, a startup working with the foundry to develop the vessels that deliver RNA into cells, called lipid nanoparticles (LNPs).

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Nicoletta Lanese: Our readers are familiar with messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines — what other medical applications are you envisioning for the future of RNA?

Dr. Drew Weissman: First, the purpose of the bio foundry is to go beyond medical therapeutics. It's to make RNA available to many other types of Science … Everything from teaching bacteria how to eat oil or plastics, to teaching plants how to avoid fungus — all of those things that don't fit into NIH's [National Institutes of Health] usual medical therapeutics.