ARTICLES BY ANNA ROSE WELCH

• Trends In Oligo Scale-Up & Delivery & How They're Impacting Manufacturing

  11/14/2025

  Here, a panel of experts at the RNA Leaders Conference give a fantastic overview of where we are today and why, as one expert so nicely put it, “This is one of the most fun times to be an oligo scientist or chemist.” 

• Beyond the Hype: Industry Experts on the Reality of mRNA in Cancer Care

  10/31/2025

  When I asked a panel of experts at RNA Leaders why mRNA was best positioned to shine in oncology, I was met with a few expected talking points and — better yet — a few I wasn’t expecting. 

• From Misinformation To Medicine: Forging Bipartisan Support to Reverse Anti-mRNA Policy

  10/9/2025

  In this article, I’ll share some of the progress AMM has made and the barriers the organization/our industry is still facing in our efforts to reverse the policy decisions that have been made against mRNA today. Throughout the panel, the speakers also shared their thoughts on the types of messaging we should be considering and/or have started to see making an impact. 

• Reclaiming mRNA's Story: How U.S. Policy Upheavals Are Pushing Us To Adapt

  10/2/2025

  I’d like to believe everyone reading Advancing RNA already knows that mRNA is the greatest. So, this article isn’t going to outline why the U.S. government’s current efforts to disparage mRNA are harmful. Rather, I’d like to focus on how these policies are impacting our industry in both positive and negative ways — starting with a few takeaways I gleaned from a discussion at RNA Leaders. 

• The Case for Process Simplification in mRNA Manufacturing

  9/2/2025

  Here, I wanted to share a few additional details from Parrella’s presentation about the efforts he and his team at Kernal Biologics made to improve their overall mRNA-LNP COGS. Though he emphasized the amount of opportunity that exists to improve our utilization of costly raw materials/reagents, as he revealed, there are also opportunities for process simplification.

• The Price Is… Almost Right: mRNA Edition! COGS Reduction Strategies

  8/28/2025

  The following article will outline the current state of COGS in the mRNA industry and the work he and his colleagues undertook to more effectively utilize raw materials. But heaven forbid this be your normal conference panel write-up. No, below I share Parrella’s insights, but in the form of a never-before released episode of The Price is Right…or perhaps more fittingly given the state of the industry today, this spectacle is more aptly titled: The Price is…Sort Of, Almost, Not Quite Right! 

• Translating An Early-Stage mRNA Therapeutic Into The Clinic

  8/26/2025

  In the following Q&A, Ethris CMO Thomas Langenickel shares some of his biggest questions and observations about the evolving mRNA therapeutics space that are the most impactful in translating early-stage RNA candidates into the clinic — particularly when that drug product boasts a novel formulation.

• The RNA Synthesis Spectrum: Between Solid-Phase Roots & A Hybrid Enzymatic Future

  8/20/2025

  There were two additional takeaways I had following my conversation with Kuchimanchi, each of which depicts where there still exists quite a bit of dynamism for an industry which can claim an “established” manufacturing paradigm.

• Beyond Solid-Phase Synthesis: The Momentum of Oligonucleotide Manufacturing

  8/13/2025

  Overall, there were three main takeaways I gleaned from our conversation that suggest the oligo sector, though more established than its mRNA cousin, is not comfortable with the status quo and is actively trying to grow beyond the limits of its current manufacturing paradigm. Here in part 1, we’ll start with my number one takeaway, which also comes equipped with a bit of history as to how we find ourselves at our current juncture.

• 5 Takeaways From The MHRA mRNA Guidance

  7/28/2025

  Having read and reread the MHRA's guidance on personalized mRNA cancer immunotherapies, the following five takeaways will function somewhat as a mind-meld, combining a few of my own thoughts/takeaways with those of the MHRA.