Overview
- Published in Nature Biotechnology on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026, MIT researchers report an AI‑guided formulation strategy called AGENT that identified excipient mixes that keep mRNA–LNP vaccines stable at room temperature for up to one year and bioactive after more than two months at 37°C.
- AGENT used Bayesian optimization on data from about 50 FDA‑approved excipients and converged on candidate formulations in six iterative rounds, cutting weeks or months of trial‑and‑error testing into roughly one month.
- In rodents and nonhuman primates the dehydrated, solid‑state LNPs produced antigen‑specific immune responses that were noninferior to fresh injectable vaccines and enabled the first reported delivery of mRNA by dissolvable microneedle patches in nonhuman primates.
- The work preserves clinically relevant Moderna‑ and Pfizer‑like LNP compositions rather than redesigning lipids, which could ease translational questions but still leaves practical issues such as reproducible manufacturing, standardized quality assays and observed structural changes called “blebs” to be resolved.
- If translated to humans, thermostable LNPs could reduce refrigeration costs and vaccine waste and broaden access in low‑resource settings, but human trials, regulatory paths, and industrial scale‑up must come next before any real‑world use.