University of NSW RNA Laboratory – Patterson Building Group
The UNSW RNA Institute was established to perform a similar function: to translate the potential of NSW bioscience into the products that will improve our health and the quality of our lives. These products are the vaccines and treatments for emerging diseases such as COVID-19, but also therapeutics for the yet more complex challenges of cancers, infectious, rare genetic and neurodegenerative diseases – all areas to be pioneered by the UNSW RNA Institute.
For all the tantalising potential of RNA science, the progress has been stymied by a bottleneck of scale and, formerly, cohesion. The wealth of RNA expertise in NSW – represented by its talent and facilities – has been kept separate by the physical boundaries of research institutions and the more abstract boundaries of research discipline. And this is where we find the UNSW RNA institute.