Bancel: Moderna mRNA delivers directly to lymph nodes and immune cells
Stéphane Bancel · Inside Moderna’s Biggest mRNA Test Since COVID · Sep 2, 2026 · at 12:02
Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel explains the biological mechanism distinguishing Moderna's mRNA vaccines from historical protein- or peptide-based cancer vaccine candidates.
0:00 / 0:39exact quote · 39.1s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“With all technology, I cannot speak about all the mRNA companies that have different mRNAs, different lipids, and so on, but with all technology, when we inject our mRNA in a muscle, whether it's a COVID shot, a flu shot, or this cancer treatment, basically the mRNA goes down to your lymph node, And it enters the APCs, the antigen presenting cell, which as you know, are key component of your immune cells, and the mRNA gets inside the APCs. This we've demonstrated and proven at the time of Karolinska, and then it basically translates the message contained in the mRNA inside the APCs, inside your immune cells, and present it from within.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Stéphane Bancel
Bancel: Moderna's mRNA shot is the first cancer vaccine that works
“Here it's the first time there is a cancer vaccine working. The field, as you know, has been doing that for 20 plus years. I think more than a thousand clinical trials that have all failed.”
Bancel: Moderna's mRNA vaccine is first melanoma agent outperforming Keytruda alone
“It's the first time that there is an agent In melanoma that is better than Ketudra alone.”
Bancel: Moderna and Merck Phase 3 individualized mRNA cancer trial is positive
“So indeed last week now we shared the news with our colleagues at Merck that after working 10 years on the individualized treatment against cancer using mRNA technology, that the phase three was positive.”
Bancel: Moderna Phase 3 trial met primary and secondary endpoints at first interim analysis
“What we announced last week is that we met the primary End point of a study, which was recurrence-free survival, i.e. People having the cancer back or dying, that we met, and then to our own surprise, because this was the first interim analysis. This is not th…”
Bancel: Moderna's Massachusetts factory is ready for individualized manufacturing at scale
“The factory is ready in Massachusetts, but we have figured out how to make and scale a product for every human being at the time.”
Bancel: Moderna trial data showed 90% of cancer antigens differ across patients
“And what we showed at ASCO and we published from a phase two study, but we believe it's the same thing in the phase three, because it's mechanistic, is that around 99 zero percent of the antigen are different patient to patient.”