This is Moderna's UK website
It may contain content that is not applicable to your location
Messenger RNA (mRNA) is a molecule found in all cells of our body and contains instructions to create proteins1. mRNA vaccines work by instructing our cells to produce a protein that is present in a pathogen (e.g. a COVID-19 spike protein), causing our body to create protective antibodies against it1.
The first vaccine component that we manufacture here is mRNA, and this process occurs in our mRNA suites.
Here, we manufacture specific mRNA strands from a DNA template using an enzymatic reaction. The mRNA strand is then purified and filtered through a process called tangential flow filtration (TFF) and a chromatography step. This process takes 5 days from start to finish2.
References:
1. Pardi N, Hogan MJ, Porter FW et al. mRNA vaccines — a new era in vaccinology. Nat Rev Drug Discov 2018; 17; 261–279. Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/nrd.2017.243. Last accessed March 2026.
2. Ehsan N, et al. An Experimental and Modelling Approach to Study Tangential Flow Filtration Performance for mRNA Drug Substance Purification. Biotechnol. J., 19: e202400473 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1002/biot.202400473 Accessed March 2026.