Order, Chaos, And The mRNA Black Box: Takeaways From The USP/AMM Forum

To be clear, this year’s USP/AMM quality forum was just as focused on the intricacies of applying/using the methods. But what was equally if not more present in this year’s discussion was our increasing acknowledgement that our understanding of mRNA and its biological mechanisms remains quite messy.

From Supporting Component to Strategic Driver: The Evolving Role of gRNA in CRISPR Therapeutics

Guide RNA is evolving from a simple targeting reagent into a complex, engineered molecule shaped by expanding CRISPR modalities, increasing length and modification demands, and tighter integration with manufacturability, analytical control, and regulatory expectations.

The RNA Ties That Bind: 3 Takeaways From The OPT Congress

Here, I unpack three takeaways I had from the OPT Congress, each of which I’d argue are indicative of the interconnectedness across the genetic medicines field.

Rethinking ATMP Assurance When Sterility Timelines, Reality Misalign

The compendial 14-day sterility testing window exposes product and patient to numerous risks, but settling on a rapid alternative also presents its own set of challenges.

MicroRNA Therapeutics In Metabolic Liver Disease: Context-Driven Drug Discovery

Realizing the therapeutic potential of miRNAs in liver disease requires confronting a problem the field has not fully reckoned with.

Inside Alnylam's Playbook For High Volume siRNA Production

As one of the first companies to establish a chemoenzymatic ligation platform, Alnylam's Maines and Nechev are in the perfect position to espouse wisdom on the practical aspects and remaining challenges of implementing enzymatic ligation at a large scale. Here in this installment, Maines and Nechev outline what they’ve learned thus far about the science of enzymatic ligation, while also paying credence to the unknowns and existing barriers that, as a frontrunner, Alnylam will inevitably (but willingly) be tasked with facing in the future.

Size Matters: Mastering Size Exclusion For Oligos

Learn how to separate molecules strictly by size, effectively remove salts, and select the correct pore specifications for a gentle, non-destructive purification workflow.

Comparison Of Constant- And PulsedField Electrophoresis

Accurate sizing of large DNA fragments is crucial in long‑read sequencing. Examine how different electrophoresis methods perform with 10–20 kb smears and how to choose the most reliable approach.

Future-Proofing mRNA Drug Manufacturing: The Value of Continuous Improvement

With so many uncertainties permeating the mRNA market, this largely preclinical industry is still seeking answers on how to reach successful therapeutic development. Identifying optimizations, both sequence-dependent and otherwise, to enhance the manufacturing process is crucial for advancing mRNA product development, which holds vast potential to address a wide range of indications.

dsRNA: Why Polymerase Choice Matters

Polymerase selection during IVT shapes dsRNA levels, processing costs, and product quality. See how enzyme engineering reduces abortive transcripts and improves purity profiles for complex mRNA manufacturing applications.

Novel Plasmid DNA-Encoded Poly(A) Tails For mRNA Synthesis

Here, we evaluate the stability of these variant poly(A) regions and the biological activity of the mRNA containing the variant poly(A) tails made from these templates.

Sequencing Of Synthetic Oligonucleotides And Their Impurities

We demonstrate an automated, compliance-ready liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) workflow for sequence confirmation of oligonucleotides and their impurities.

Understanding RNA Higher-Order Structure Dynamics For CRISPR Applications

Scientists are gaining valuable knowledge about the structural dynamics of guide RNAs used in CRISPR-Cas9. This deeper understanding could pave the way for improved gene editing tools.