How a Vaccine That Stifled a Worldwide Pandemic Could Tackle Cancer

Keerthi Vedantam

Keerthi Vedantam is a bioscience reporter at dot.LA. She cut her teeth covering everything from cloud computing to 5G in San Francisco and Seattle. Before she covered tech, Keerthi reported on tribal lands and congressional policy in Washington, D.C. Connect with her on Twitter, Clubhouse (@keerthivedantam) or Signal at 408-470-0776.

How a Vaccine That Stifled a Worldwide Pandemic Could Tackle Cancer

The pandemic’s grip on the globe could have been much worse had it not been for the speedy appearance and adoption of vaccines on the market.

Many of those vaccines owe their existence to a group of scientists in France who, in 1993, concocted a cocktail of mRNA and lipids to see if it could help mice overcome influenza. It was the first study that showed mRNA vaccines could be used to combat viruses, and what followed was a slew of newly-founded pharma companies banking on the promise of mRNA, which is responsible for protein production, to treat cancer. While many of those have yet to make it to market, COVID may propel them into the hands of cancer patients worldwide.


Two well-known vaccines in the U.S. are mRNA-based and the companies that produced them, Moderna and BioNTech, have long been tinkering with mRNA for oncology purposes before they cracked the code on a COVID-19 vaccine that would inoculate millions of Americans and stifle the spread of COVID-19.

“Essentially you had this huge clinical trial of using mRNA,” said Dr. Eunjoo Pacifici, a professor at the USC School of Pharmacy. “So we're pretty confident about the safety of this technology right now.”

That has opened the door for a slew of uses for mRNA, a type of RNA in the body that is responsible for protein production.

Moderna is conducting active clinical trials on mRNA and cancers. BioNTech is also looking into mRNA treatments for those with melanoma and colorectal cancer. CureVac, which focuses solely on RNA applications, is working on a variety of cancer therapeutics including skin cancer. And companies in Southern California, like Los Angeles-based Avidity Biosciences, have been using RNA for muscular dystrophy and atrophy treatments. Replicate Bioscience in San Diego is in the infancy stages of harnessing RNA for breast cancer, lung cancer and tumors.

Photo by Mat Napo on Unsplash

What changed in the scientific world was money, according to Dr. Shaun Yang, an assistant medical director at the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory at UCLA. With the pandemic, suddenly an explosion of funding globally had every pharma company and research university racing to find a way to stop COVID-19 from whipping across the world, mutating rapidly and devastating countries.

“To be honest, it was almost like a gamble. These companies could choose the safer and more conservative approach and just focus on the older vaccine [protocol]. They have a less chance of failing,” Yang said. “And instead, they chose to go for the more advanced technology that we didn't really have a lot of experience with.”

Most vaccines work by taking a weakened version of the virus, or a portion of the virus, and introducing it to the body so the immune system knows how to fight it. Most vaccines use DNA, but RNA, which uses genetic codes encoded in DNA to carry out functions in cells, opened the door for creating high-potency treatments at scale.

The mRNA vaccine works using the Sars-Cov-2 spike protein (essentially the “skin” of the virus, but not the virus itself), which spurs the body’s cells to copy that “skin” and create more spike proteins for the immune system to fight.

For a long time, mRNA vaccines were considered too volatile, fragile and expensive for infectious diseases because mRNA couldn’t survive in the body long enough for the immune system to properly utilize it. Though scientific breakthroughs over time have addressed these issues, traditional vaccines already worked and there was little funding to explore mRNA vaccines.

“Instead of taking a long time to rev up the immune system, the immune system is already ready to go,” Pacifi said. “It's almost like having a machine gun already loaded with the ammunition, instead of having an empty machine gun that you've got to go out and buy the ammunition.”

With the widespread proven efficacy of the mRNA vaccine, Yang said, research into other uses for the vaccines may spur faster advancement than previously thought of for other infectious diseases like HIV, or as a cancer treatment. Like the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, mRNA-based cancer therapeutics would simply need to introduce a “shell” of a cancer created from proteins into the body, which will then learn how to fight it.

But challenges still lie ahead. mRNA for therapeutic purposes will require scientists to send the mRNA to the proper location once it enters the body. If it doesn’t enter the cell, it can simply disintegrate in the bloodstream.

It has been difficult to replicate this theory with previous vaccines which require a dead or weakened virus to be injected into the body. Cancer cells morph quickly and vary so wildly between patients there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. But an mRNA therapeutic could take a sample of the patient’s cancer, find the unique mutation, and create an mRNA treatment that is inoculated into the patient. The patient’s body then produces those “shells”, allowing the immune system to attack them.

“We can quickly respond to the changing mutations of not only this organism, but future organisms,” Pacifi said.

mRNA vaccines have opened the door for the possibility of the ultimate cancer treatment: highly personalized, scalable, off-the-shelf and relatively noninvasive treatments that could save millions of lives.

“It's very exciting,” Yang said. “This is one of the silver linings out of this pandemic. A lot of new technologies have the opportunity to shine.”

https://twitter.com/KeerthiVedantam
keerthi@dot.la
LA Tech Week 2025: Sunday’s Event Lineup

Here's the Sunday, October 19th lineup for LA Tech Week 2025, organized by location so you can easily explore events that fit your goals and schedule. Dive in and see what’s happening near you!

ARTS DISTRICT

3:00 PM

BEL AIR

3:00 PM – 7:00 PM

BURBANK

6:30 PM – 9:30 PM

CULVER CITY

9:00 AM – 5:00 PM

4:30 PM – 7:30 PM

INGLEWOOD

10:00 AM – 2:00 PM

  • Spinovation: The Future Is Femme, The Future is Frequency: See Details Here
    Sonder Impact, Black Women Spin, Sip & Sonder

KOREATOWN

12:00 PM – 3:00 PM

MARINA DEL REY

12:00 PM

  • Sunday Tech Brunch
    Sawubona

MID CITY

9:00 AM – 11:00 AM

  • Women in Cleantech Hike and Network: See Details Here
    Women in Cleantech and Sustainability

SANTA MONICA

9:00 AM

10:00 AM

3:45 PM

4:00 PM – 7:30 PM

  • OFF THE HOOK Santa Monica Seafood Festival: See Details Here
    Spin PR Group, City of Santa Monica, Tech St.

6:00 PM

7:00 PM

  • Pritam: A Musical Legend - Live in Concert: See Details Here
    American South Asian Network

7:00 PM

  • Building AI workflow editor in React with Workflow Builder SDK: See Details Here
    Workflow Builder

7:00 PM

8:00 PM

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    iStore by St. Moritz

TOPANGA CANYON

3:00 PM

  • Dreamore Hike and Picnic: LA Tech Week: *Invite Only*
    Dreamore

VENICE

10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

  • Coffee, Walk, and Schmooze: See Details Here
    JFE (Jews For Entrepreneurship) Network

VIRTUAL (LA)

10:00 AM

  • Level Up with LinkedIn: A Student’s Guide to Networking & Opportunities (Virtual Event): See Details Here
    FIMAC

10:00 AM

WEST ADAMS

1:00 PM – 3:00 PM

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BEVERLY HILLS

2:00 PM

CENTURY CITY

7:00 PM – 10:00 PM

CULVER CITY

9:00 AM – 5:00 PM

10:00 AM – 11:30 AM

1:00 PM

DTLA

7:00 PM

  • {MiniMax x Nakid x SkyPortalx}: TECH/MOTION/MUSIC/ART: See Details Here
    MiniMax (Hailuo AI)

10:00 PM – 2:00 AM

EL SEGUNDO

10:00 AM

  • Venture on the Green: *Invite Only*
    BLCK VC

4:00 PM

INGLEWOOD

7:00 PM

  • Valar Atomics, Durin and Discipulus Ventures - Night With A Nuclear Reactor: See Details Here
    Valar Atomics, Durin, Discipulus Ventures

MARINA DEL REY

8:30 AM

12:00 PM – 3:00 PM

5:00 PM

  • LOST iN Sunset Sail: Navigating the Tides of the Creator Economy & Media: See Details Here
    LOST iN

PASADENA

9:00 AM

PLAYA VISTA

2:00 PM – 4:00 PM

SANTA MONICA

7:00 AM

9:00 AM

  • Pedal & Network: Tech Cyclists @ LA Tech Week 🚵: See Details Here
    Instafill.ai

9:30 AM

  • Getty Center Guided Tour & (Optional) Photography Scavenger Hunt: See Details Here
    NEW MOON Impact Productions

10:30 AM – 11:30 AM

11:00 AM – 2:15 PM

12:00 PM – 5:00 PM

1:00 PM – 5:00 PM

1:30 PM

  • Self-Defense in Court and the Streets: See Details Here
    Santa Monica Striking, Luri Inc.

2:00 PM

  • SMARTUP 500: THE FIRST AT TECH WEEK LA - Launching the world’s first Startup Ranking: See Details Here
    Smart Times

2:00 PM

  • NLPs (No Lame Panels) The Creator X Founder Rooftop Party: See Details Here
    Startup Village, Sanctuary

3:00 PM – 4:00 PM

4:00 PM – 6:30 PM

  • Just Do It?: Helping Founders Perform Like Olympians: See Details Here
    Elite Psychology Group

5:00 PM

6:00 PM

6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

6:00 PM

6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

  • The Future of Hospitality: Poetry, Provenance & Passports: See Details Here
    Villa Kitchen, Airble, We Speak Dance, Techstars San Francisco

7:00 PM

  • 🚀 Investor x Founder Open Mic Pitches: See Details Here
    Feathr, Los Angeles Fun Events

7:00 PM

  • Life is a Pitch - LA Edition: *Invite Only*
    DeepMyst

TOPANGA CANYON

5:00 PM – 8:30 PM

  • Walk&Jam: Use AI to make art while hiking Topanga Canyon: See Details Here
    Formhaus llc, Wonderland Immersive Design

TORRANCE

1:00 PM – 4:00 PM

  • Crunches & Conversations Presented by The Differentials and KIS Training Studios: See Details Here
    The Differentials, KIS Training Studios

VENICE

1:00 PM – 4:30 PM

  • Beyond the Language Barrier: Exploring AI's Next Frontier: See Details Here
    Medusa AI

VENICE BEACH

8:00 AM – 12:00 PM

  • SŨRFED Club @ Venice Beach: Founders, Creators, Investors share the waves: See Details Here
    SŨRFED Club, Go Vitamins

WEST ADAMS

9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

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4:00 PM

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

9:30 PM

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8:30 AM – 12:00 PM

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6:00 PM

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BEVERLY HILLS

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM

1:00 PM – 2:00 PM

2:00 PM – 3:00 PM

3:00 PM – 4:00 PM

4:00 PM

6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

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    Verci, Study Fetch, TechSpace

8:00 PM

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    Visionlist Commons , Bay Area Innovest

BRENTWOOD

8:00 AM

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CARSON

11:45 AM

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    Lightspeed Venture Partners, SVB

CULVER CITY

8:00 AM – 6:00 PM

11:00 AM

1:00 PM

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    Surflytics

8:00 PM – 12:00 AM

EL SEGUNDO

11:30 AM – 2:00 PM

5:00 PM – 8:00 PM

HOLLYWOOD

10:00 AM

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    Sunrise AI, OpenTable

12:00 PM – 2:00 PM

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    TAY Fitness, Checked Out

9:00 PM

INGLEWOOD

8:00 AM

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    The Cyber Security Intellects Nonprofit

LONG BEACH

7:00 AM

MALIBU

10:00 AM

  • Great Leaders Podcast & Profiles: See Details Here
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12:30 PM

MARINA DEL REY

9:00 AM

  • Keeping Your Freedom as a Founder: Real Talk on Funding: See Details Here
    Lighter Capital

10:00 AM – 1:00 PM

  • D-Wave Research Day & Hackathon!: See Details Here
    USC Information Sciences Institute, D-Wave

4:00 PM – 6:00 PM

  • The Sky is Not the Limit: All About Aerospace: See Details Here
    Sunstone Management, USC Viterbi Startup Garage

PASADENA

10:00 AM – 1:00 PM

11:30 AM – 1:30 PM

  • Deep Tech Entrepreneurship Pillars of Pasadena Tech: See Details Here
    Innovate Pasadena, Pasadena SBDC, City of Pasadena

PLAYA VISTA

9:00 AM

12:00 PM – 2:00 PM

  • Vision to Venture - AI Media Showcase powered by Google AI: See Details Here
    Google

SANTA MONICA

7:00 AM – 8:30 AM

  • Signal Run : RTC x Wildwood VC: See Details Here
    Run Tech Club, Wildwood Ventures

7:30 AM

8:45 AM – 10:45 AM

9:00 AM – 11:00 AM

  • Slash Burn Rates & Scale Your Startup: See Details Here
    Arizona Commerce Authority (ACA)

9:00 AM

  • Driving a Digital Ecology Relay: What is at Stake: See Details Here
    The PORT GLOBAL, GLOBAL PORTAL INSTITUTE

9:30 AM – 11:30 AM

10:00 AM – 1:00 PM

  • The Enduring Value of Inclusive Capital: See Details Here
    Founders Registry. Nervana

10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

10:30 AM

11:30 AM – 1:00 PM

  • Advisors to Investors Lunch: Venture Capital for enterprise leaders: See Details Here
    Collinear Capital, Worlds

12:00 PM

  • Powerhouse Capital & a16z speedrun Investor Lunch Mixer: See Details Here
    Powerhouse Capital, a16z, speedrun

2:00 PM

  • Where Robotics Meets Heart - Embedding Family Values in a Future with AI: See Details Here
    Trove, Puerto Rico Blockchain Association, MindfulBytes

2:00 PM

3:00 PM

3:00 PM

3:00 PM

  • Workshop: Create An Enterprise Chatbot and Unlock the 70% of Data Data You’re Not Using: See Details Here
    Aparavi

4:00 PM

5:00 PM – 10:00 PM

5:30 PM

5:30 PM – 9:30 PM

6:00 PM – 8:30 PM

  • USC Alumni Founders & Investors: See Details Here
    USC Alumni Entrepreneurship Network, Techstars

6:00 PM

  • Social Currency Series/Greenlit presents PitchPop: See Details Here
    Social Currency Series, Greenlit

6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

6:30 PM

6:30 PM – 10:00 PM

6:30 PM

  • Lets get the LA Bioeconomy brewing: See Details Here
    Founders, Friends & Fermentation, Saku Biosciences

7:00 PM – 11:30 PM

7:00 PM – 10:00 PM

7:00 PM – 10:00 PM

7:00 PM

7:00 PM

  • Liquid Equity 2: The Premiere Gathering for Founders, Creator
    Coeus Collective

7:00 PM

7:00 PM

  • For the Love of Tech | Speed Dating for Tech Professionals: See Details Here
    Feathr, Los Angeles Fun Events

7:00 PM

SOUTH LA

3:00 PM

TORRANCE

9:00 AM – 11:00 AM

  • The Future of Space & Security Panel: See Details Here
    Northwood Space, Anduril Industries, Impulse Space, Astranis

VENICE

9:00 AM – 10:45 AM

9:00 AM – 11:30 AM

11:00 AM

11:30 AM – 2:30 PM

12:30 PM

  • Creative Partners: Human + AI Storytelling: See Details Here
    Othelia, Primordial Soup

2:00 PM – 3:45 PM

5:00 PM

  • EarthHouse: Critical Minerals, Mobility & Modern Power: See Details Here
    The Strategye Group, Alpha Sierra One

6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

6:00 PM

  • Pizza+Soda: *Invite Only*
    Schmoozd , The KINN

7:00 PM

VENICE BEACH

2:00 PM – 6:30 PM

5:00 PM

8:30 PM – 2:00 AM

VIRTUAL (LA)

2:30 PM – 4:00 PM

3:00 PM

  • Government of Alberta: ProcurementAsCode // Done in 60 Seconds: See Details Here
    Government of Alberta

4:00 PM

  • Stop Hitting Yourself 🥊: See Details Here
    Stop Hitting Yourself, HOWDY, Company Policy, Snowbird Global

WEST HOLLYWOOD

3:00 PM – 6:00 PM

6:00 PM

WESTSIDE

5:00 PM

5:30 PM – 8:30 PM


For updates or more event information, visit the official Tech Week calendar.

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