Messenger RNA, or mRNA, are molecules that carry genetic information from the DNA in every cell in the body to create specific proteins.

“For cancer, this message will stimulate the patient’s ability to effectively fight tumors,” Dimitri Szymczak, project manager of French research institute INSERM’s ART lab in Orleans, told AFP.

While mRNA was discovered in the early 1960s, it rose to global prominence when scientists used it to swiftly develop next-generation vaccines during the COVID pandemic, earning the medicine Nobel prize in 2023.