RFK Jr cancelled mRNA research — but the US military is still funding it
Elie Dolgin • September 24, 2025
The Department of Defense is continuing to bankroll projects to develop vaccines against deadly pathogens.
The abrupt termination last month of nearly half a billion dollars in US government contracts for mRNA-vaccine research rattled scientists working inside and outside industry. The cuts raised alarm about the country’s commitment to the Nobel-prizewinning technology, which is credited with saving millions of lives during the COVID-19 pandemic and is regarded as essential for fighting viruses in the future.
Yet not all large-scale research into mRNA vaccines in the United States is being dismantled. Nature has learnt that, even as the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) — led by vaccine critic Robert F. Kennedy Jr — pulls back, the country’s military continues to bankroll parts of the same research.
Continue reading at Nature.
As humans return to the Moon, researchers are trying to understand—and thwart—the biological toll of deep-space radiation.
Animals that researchers call “supersucklers” come back for their mother’s milk even after they can hunt, mate and fend for themselves.