AI and the World's Hard Problems · Medicine & drug discovery · MIT · 2026-09-28
New formulation helps RNA vaccines withstand high temperatures
RNA vaccines usually need ultracold storage, so MIT researchers used an AI algorithm to tweak the formulation around the lipid nanoparticles that deliver mRNA vaccines. The algorithm predicted optimal formulations, cutting the number of experiments needed and speeding development. The resulting vaccines stayed stable for up to a year at room temperature or two months at nearly 100°F, and in mice a Covid-19 vaccine produced an immune response as strong as that of an RNA vaccine similar to Moderna's.