The rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines has made “mRNA” a household term. But now that we have the technology, what other roles can RNA play in our approach to medicine? How can it help us deliver more equitable healthcare across the globe? Melissa Moore, Moderna’s chief scientific officer emerita, will unravel some of these questions on Nov. 5 during the Center for RNA Biology’s Inaugural Schoenberg Lecture, co-sponsored by Science Sundays.

The event will be held at Ohio State’s Fawcett Center, located at 2400 Olentangy River Rd. in Columbus, Ohio. Moore’s talk will begin at 3 p.m., followed by a reception and student poster session at 4 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public, but RSVPs are requested at go.osu.edu/rnascience. Seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis.

“The Center for RNA Biology is excited and honored to host Dr. Melissa Moore for the inaugural Schoenberg Lectureship,” said Karin Musier-Forsyth, director of Ohio State’s Center for RNA Biology and an Ohio Eminent Scholar and professor of chemistry and biochemistry. “Dr. Moore is a distinguished leader in the RNA field and we are certain that her lectures will inspire our trainees and the entire OSU RNA research community.”

Melissa J. Moore has spent decades researching RNA, working to extend fundamental knowledge around how it is created, used to build proteins, and destroyed in mammalian cells. She served as Moderna’s chief scientific officer from 2016-2022, where her team’s work on mRNA engineering and delivery was foundational to the rapid production of Moderna's highly effective mRNA vaccine for SARS-CoV-2. Moore has earned numerous academic accolades, including a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigatorship and election to the National Academy of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In her current role, she is passionate about educating the public, industry leadership and other audiences about what she sees as the coming age of RNA medicines.

“Dr. Moore is a world-renowned scientist with a remarkable ability to connect with broad audiences to effectively convey the many complexities of RNA,” said Guramrit Singh, associate professor of molecular genetics at Ohio State. Singh is a co-organizer of the event and previously worked in Moore’s lab as a postdoctoral researcher.

The Schoenberg Lectureship honors Daniel Schoenberg’s decades-long leadership of RNA research at Ohio State and in the Midwest. Among the many achievements in his distinguished career, two of Schoenberg’s key legacies are the founding (along with partner institutions) of the Rustbelt RNA Meeting in 1999 and establishment of the Center for RNA Biology at Ohio State in 2012. He served as the center’s first director from 2012-2018. The Schoenberg Lectureship is an annual celebration of the triumphs of RNA research with the scientific community and the general public.

"Science Sundays is delighted to partner with the Center for RNA Biology on the inaugural Schoenberg Lecture, not only because of this outstanding speaker but also because Dan Schoenberg was a longtime member of the Science Sundays committee," said John Beacom, College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Henry L. Cox Professor of Physics and of Astronomy and director of the Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics.

Science Sundays is a free lecture series open to the public that discusses a wide range of current and emerging topics and issues in science that touch our everyday lives. Speakers are experts in their fields, from Ohio State’s campus and around the world, with experience in making their topics interesting and accessible for audiences of all ages, with or without a science background. Watch previous talks and sign up for notifications of future events at go.osu.edu/sciencesundays.