Oral Presentation Australasian RNA Biology and Biotechnology Association 2026 Conference

Beyond the Template: Removing DNA Constraints from the Future of RNA (147556)

Joe Hedley 1 , Andrew Pike 1 , Peter Davis 2 , Michael Hutchins 1
  1. NunaBio Ltd, Newcastle, United Kingdom
  2. ATA Scientific, Caringbah, NSW, Australia

The next generation of RNA medicines will demand increasingly complex DNA templates, yet many sequences required for advanced RNA design remain difficult, slow or impossible to manufacture using conventional approaches.

NunaBio has developed a fully cell-free DNA manufacturing platform designed to overcome these constraints, enabling rapid production of complex DNA including long homopolymers, repetitive regions and extended poly-A sequences. Recent work has demonstrated poly-A constructs beyond 300 bases alongside multi-kilobase complex templates, opening new possibilities for RNA design and manufacture.

Through a new partnership with ATA Scientific, this capability is now being introduced into Australia and New Zealand. This presentation will explore how removing DNA manufacturability constraints can expand the design space for RNA therapeutics today, while creating a pathway toward scalable, distributed and ultimately sovereign DNA manufacturing capability for the region.