GoKawiilMicroscope image of engineered RNA nanostars.Credit: Fabrini, G. et al. Nature Nanotechnol. 19, 1665–1673 (2024)
During the pandemic, the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines developed by Moderna and the Pfizer–BioNTech collaboration reached widespread clinical use in record time, thanks to unprecedented funding, regulatory flexibility and early manufacturing investment. This rapid development was made possible by decades of discoveries in RNA biology and nanoscale delivery technologies through work that often had no obvious practical application.
Nature Index 2026 Nanoscience and nanotechnology
Many of the advances described in this supplement are at similarly early stages. From RNA-based nanostructures to emerging materials for imaging and energy applications, their potential lies in understanding, and ultimately harnessing, behaviours at the nanoscale. RNA, for example, has already proved to be more than a genetic messenger, serving as a foundation for molecular switches, programmable biological circuits and self-assembling nanostructures. Yet gaps remain in scientists’ understanding of how these designs behave and respond to the environment of living cells. A new class of nanomaterials might enable more powerful X-ray imaging, but challenges around long-term stability and durability must be overcome.