The University of Washington received a $380,337 Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Biology Research program (CFDA 93.396) to develop predictive models that relate mRNA sequence to stability and translation. The goal is to combine machine learning with massively parallel reporter assays to build models that can generate synthetic UTR and coding sequences to produce (1) high protein expression across cell types or (2) highly cell type-specific protein expression. This research aims to accelerate the development of optimized mRNA therapeutics, particularly for cancer immunotherapy applications. The award period runs from March 1, 2025 to February 29, 2028.
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