Payload Design
Designing and optimising RNA payloads, such as mRNA or circular RNA, to instruct cells to make specific proteins.
Dr William Kelton
Payload Design Pillar lead
Dr William Kelton, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Waikato’s Te Huataki Waiora School of Health, brings extensive industry experience from New Zealand’s biotech sector to academia.
His background, spanning roles at Ora Therapeutics and Scion Research, informs his current academic focus on antibody engineering and molecular biotechnologies for biomedical applications.
Alongside supervising research at the Master’s and PhD levels, he is a vital contributor to the university’s Biomedical Science programs.
Scope of Research
To support the national mRNA platform by developing capability in mRNA payload design.
The research will explore approaches to enhance the programmability of mRNA through optimising sequence and via post transcriptional modifications.
Further, the pillar will provide support to the Wellington-based research grade mRNA manufacturing base.
These approaches will pair wet lab experimental techniques
with computational methods to assist with the design and optimisation of mRNA sequences.
Collaborators
Paul Gardner
Target Optimisation
Wayne Patric
BioChemistry
