What does it take to produce high-quality mRNA for research?
In this video, Adrienne Tock, a Research Assistant with the RNA Development Platform at the University of Waikato, visits the RNA Platform Production team in Wellington to learn more about mRNA production and bring that knowledge back to her own research.
Adrienne spent three days working alongside the team, gaining first-hand insight into their in vitro transcription (IVT) workflows, laboratory practices and approaches to producing RNA consistently and reliably.
The visit also gave Adrienne the opportunity to work through one of the practical challenges she encounters in her own research: preventing RNase contamination. RNases are enzymes that rapidly degrade RNA and can easily compromise experiments if they are introduced into the laboratory workflow.
The Production team shared practical advice on reducing contamination risk, from workspace setup to good RNA handling practices.
For Adrienne, being able to learn directly from researchers with extensive experience in RNA production was particularly valuable.
“The team made me feel welcome from the moment I arrived and took the time to answer my questions and explain their processes. I left with a stronger understanding of mRNA production workflows and greater confidence in managing RNase contamination.”
The visit is an example of how the RNA Development Platform is connecting researchers and specialist capabilities across its partner organisations. By sharing expertise, facilities and practical knowledge, researchers can build capability faster and apply what they learn directly to their own projects.
From RNA production to better-performing mRNA
Adrienne has been a Research Assistant with the RNA Development Platform since March 2026, working under the supervision of Dr William Kelton at the University of Waikato.
She completed her undergraduate studies in Molecular and Cellular Biology at Waikato before completing a Master’s degree in William’s research group.
Her current Platform research focuses on untranslated regions, or UTRs, and how they can be used to improve the performance of mRNA.
mRNA carries instructions that tell cells how to produce proteins, but the protein-coding sequence is only part of the molecule. UTRs are regulatory regions that can influence how stable an mRNA molecule is and how efficiently a cell produces the protein it encodes.
Adrienne is screening UTR sequences from a range of genes to understand how different sequences affect protein expression and mRNA stability.
Producing mRNA through IVT is an essential part of this work, making her time with the Production team directly relevant to the experiments she is undertaking at Waikato.
By bringing together expertise in RNA design, production and testing, collaborations like this help researchers across the Platform strengthen their capabilities and accelerate the development of new RNA technologies.
