Robert Alexander Wesselhoeft, PhD, on the Therapeutic Potential of Circular RNA

“Circular RNA has lots of advantages over mRNA, including the price of manufacturing and the stability of the molecule, which allows it to really open doors in terms of therapeutics that really aren't available to mRNA because of its short half-life. We are aiming to become one of the leaders in the circular RNA space, at least academically—driving forward innovation on circular RNA and then eventually translation into medicines.”

In recent years, mRNA-based products have made significant headway in the field of medicine, with perhaps the most well-known example being the use of mRNA in COVID-19 vaccines. Some companies and academic institutions are, however, exploring the use of other RNA types for therapeutic applications. Among these is the Gene and Cell Therapy Institute (GCTI) at Mass General Brigham (MGB), which was established several years ago with the intent of helping some of the innovative preclinical research in cell and gene therapy make the leap to clinical trials. Among the GCTI’s current efforts is the application of circular RNA to therapeutic purposes.

At the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT) 28th Annual Meeting, held May 13 to 17, 2025, in New Orleans, LA, CGTLive® spoke with Robert Alexander Wesselhoeft, PhD, the director of RNA Therapeutics at GCTI, to learn more about the Institutes efforts in this area. Wesselhoeft gave some background about the GCTI’s role in general and then launched into a discussion of the potential of circular RNA as a therapeutic modality. He pointed out that circular RNA has several advantages over mRNA, such as greater stability and lower manufacturing costs. Wesselhoeft then went over some of the potential therapeutic areas where circular RNA could be applied, such as vaccines and gene editing, with the latter having potential for application in treating rare diseases and producing in vivo chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies. He also touched on some of the challenges of applying circular RNA to therapeutic purposes.

Click here to view more coverage of the 2025 ASGCT Annual Meeting.