Ask HN: Personalized mRNA cancer vaccines, how real is the pipeline today?

5•imnotlost•1h ago

I came across this open-source workflow for designing personalized mRNA cancer vaccines:

https://philfung.github.io/openvaxx/

And this recent story about a man who worked with researchers to create a personalized cancer vaccine for his dog:

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-ai-cancer-vaccine-dog-oncologist.html

It got me wondering what the current technology, research, and startup landscape looks like for personalized mRNA medicine in humans.

Are any HN people working in this space, or close to it? I’m especially curious about: - how real the pipeline is today outside major institutions - which parts are getting cheaper or more accessible - which parts of the pipeline is being taken over by software and possibly new AI models - where the real bottlenecks are: sequencing, target selection, manufacturing, QC, regulation, or something else - whether anyone is building tools, infrastructure, or startups around more individualized mRNA therapies

Comments

PaulHoule•1h ago

I’d be mostly concerned about testing that it dowsn’t have side effects. You probably can do a lot in vitro, but you need a platform to do it.

brewcejener•1h ago

Given the tremendous success of the covid mRNA campaign it's surely right around the corner.

nextos•48m ago

The problem with mRNA vaccines for cancer is effectiveness. Vaccines already work well for prevention of relapses in e.g. tumors that have been surgically removed.

They might also be great combined with early-stage detection via ctDNA.

But in late-stage patients, the effectiveness is limited because the host immune system is compromised.

Several landmark mRNA cancer vaccine trials by BioNTech and others have pointed in this direction.

In vivo reprogramming of T cells might be the next frontier. In fact, the BioNTech founders are moving to a new venture, but it's unclear what their thesis is.

Arkweaver: Never Lose a Deal to Missing Features Again

Elon Musk loses big in court; X boycott perfectly legal

Swift C++ Interoperability in Practice: Raylib and Dear ImGui

Anthropic: "During peak hours you'll move through session limits faster"

A few factoids about IPv6 datagrams

The Computer Chronicles – Artificial Intelligence (1984) [video]

Opinion: Science Communication Is Central to the Practice of Science

Engineering a Photograph [video]

Show HN: I made an app to create 360 camera backgrounds from prompt

Astro 6.1

OpenAI puts erotic chatbot plans on hold 'indefinitely'

Leaders of AI Firm Bought by Meta Are Restricted from Leaving China

Lessons from Pyre That Shaped Pyrefly – Pyrefly

Netflix raising prices for a second time in a year

A Homebrew Open-World Engine for the N64 [video]

Rewriting a 20-year-old Python library

Iran's toll booth system is now controlling Hormuz traffic

Ask HN: How do you deal with obvious AI assistant usage in interviews

Iran oil revenue soars as it's the only exporter out of Hormuz

The ANSI art "telecomics" of the 1992 election

The AI boom wasn't built for the polycrisis

Why experts rarely give you a straight answer

A Look at Some Retro Desktop Graphical User Interfaces

Gemini CLI not working for many users

Update on Session Limits – /U/ClaudeOfficial

Framework Doesn't Matter

The Enhancement

Show HN: Convene – Marketplace and management software for event organizers

Show HN: Memoir – Sync your AI coding memory across 11 tools and every device

Jargon Sucks