Carnegie Mellon University
December 09, 2021

Moderna Launches AI Academy in Partnership With Carnegie Mellon University

Strategic partnership to deliver AI capabilities, skills, and education to all Moderna employees, as part of a broader investment in a digital-first culture

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Moderna, Inc., (Nasdaq: MRNA) a biotechnology company pioneering messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines, today announced the launch of its Artificial Intelligence (AI) Academy, an innovative initiative that will bring to life an immersive learning experience for Moderna employees, in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). 

The AI Academy is intended to educate and empower employees at all levels to identify and integrate AI and machine learning solutions into every Moderna system and process to bring mRNA medicines to patients.

“Moderna is advancing mRNA medicines at a breadth, speed, and scale that is uncommon in the biopharmaceutical industry, and we attribute this speed in part to the incorporation of digital technologies in our company,” said Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna. “As we look at the next 10-20 years, we believe that we have to learn as fast as we can to maximize the impact of mRNA technologies to patients and scale our company in a very different way than large companies have scaled in the last decades. We believe AI is a key enabler of our ability to build the best version of Moderna now and into the future. This AI academy will enable us to make AI part of the company ways of working, part of our DNA. We look forward to driving this with Carnegie Mellon’s team.”

CMU’s Department of Statistics & Data Science, a part of the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and the Tepper School of Business are collaborating with professors across the University to design and deliver Moderna’s AI Academy. This unique program will deliver a tailored curriculum structured for working professionals focused on topics including data quality and data visualization, statistical thinking and models, machine learning algorithms, and AI ethics. The breadth and depth of content will help all employees think strategically about how to leverage AI in their specific job functions. The AI Academy will connect Moderna staff directly with CMU’s faculty both in person and online using the Integrated Statistics Learning Environment (ISLE), an interactive educational platform developed at the University. U.S. News & World Report ranks CMU as the top university for graduate education in AI, as well as computer science.

“We are excited to deliver a world-class AI curriculum to Moderna and support the company’s deep-rooted commitment to discovery and innovation that protects public health,” said CMU President Farnam Jahanian. “With decades-long leadership in the field, Carnegie Mellon is uniquely positioned to help businesses learn how to use AI to drive the kinds of breakthroughs needed to address urgent societal challenges. It’s rewarding to partner with a pioneering biotech company that is dedicated to adapting its business and its workforce to this critical technology.”

Moderna will launch the program next week with its first cohort of students and is targeting early 2022 for the full rollout.

About Moderna

In 10 years since its inception, Moderna has transformed from a science research-stage company advancing programs in the field of messenger RNA (mRNA), to an enterprise with a diverse clinical portfolio of vaccines and therapeutics across six modalities, a broad intellectual property portfolio in areas including mRNA and lipid nanoparticle formulation, and an integrated manufacturing plant that allows for both clinical and commercial production at scale and at unprecedented speed. Moderna maintains alliances with a broad range of domestic and overseas government and commercial collaborators, which has allowed for the pursuit of both groundbreaking science and rapid scaling of manufacturing. Most recently, Moderna’s capabilities have come together to allow the authorized use of one of the earliest and most effective vaccines against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Moderna’s mRNA platform builds on continuous advances in basic and applied mRNA science, delivery technology and manufacturing, and has allowed the development of therapeutics and vaccines for infectious diseases, immuno-oncology, rare diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and auto-immune diseases. Moderna has been named a top biopharmaceutical employer by Science for the past seven years. To learn more, visit www.modernatx.com.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended, including regarding: the launch of the Company’s Artificial Intelligence Academy; the timing for that launch and its scope; and the potential impact on the Company’s development programs. The forward-looking statements in this press release are neither promises nor guarantees, and you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements because they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond Moderna’s control and which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties, and other factors include those other risks and uncertainties described under the heading “Risk Factors” in Moderna’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and in subsequent filings made by Moderna with the SEC, which are available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Except as required by law, Moderna disclaims any intention or responsibility for updating or revising any forward-looking statements contained in this press release in the event of new information, future developments or otherwise. These forward-looking statements are based on Moderna’s current expectations and speak only as of the date hereof.

Moderna Contacts

Media:
Colleen Hussey
Director, Corporate Communications
617-335-1374
Colleen.Hussey@modernatx.com

Investors:
Lavina Talukdar
Senior Vice President & Head of Investor Relations
617-209-5834
Lavina.Talukdar@modernatx.com