Moderna

Ortent Life Sciences Radar, research beta. Evidence to 6 October 2026, rule set v0.4.3. Scope: AI and computation in drug discovery (T1), and research-lab digitalisation and scientific data systems (T2). The company scope is Moderna as a whole; the scope note excludes nothing. Each ID in brackets links to its online source, and the source index at the end of this brief lists them.

Disclosure: Andrew Wyatt, Ortent's principal, was Chief Growth Officer at Sapio Sciences until April 2026. Software vendors, including Sapio and its competitors, appear in this brief only where public sources name them.

Status: research beta. Ortent has reviewed this brief; it has not been independently validated. It summarises activity identified in public sources. Search coverage varies by company and is set out under Coverage limits, and zero identified items does not mean no activity. It does not predict buying intent or measure operational maturity. For this radar, process and CMC development are grouped with manufacturing and excluded from the research-lab theme (T2); such work appears as context where it helps.

Summary

The reviewed sources identify one T2 initiative with a commitment change involving Moderna in the year to 4 October 2025, and one T1 initiative first disclosed in the year to 5 October 2026 [>MRNA-E09, >E10]. The T2 change is an expanded collaboration, announced by Benchling, that extends Benchling's R&D platform from Moderna's technical development teams to its research organisation [>MRNA-E09]. The T1 change is a University of Alberta collaboration with Moderna scientists to develop an AI-based computational model for mRNA medicines, reported by the university with no event date stated [>MRNA-E10]. At its Science Day on 25 June 2026 Moderna introduced Lucy, a learning system at the heart of a Scientific Intelligence Engine that it says it is building; this is recorded as a newly observed capability, not a commitment change [>MRNA-E05]. The 6 October recruitment snapshot contains 8 relevant R&D requisition postings across the two themes, none with ambiguous vacancy status [>MRNA-R02, >R19, >R20, >R34, >R06, >R21, >R23, >R24]. These observations identify programmes and functions for further investigation; they do not establish procurement opportunity, deployment completion or net hiring.

Announced commitments

Moderna published neither item itself. Benchling's release quotes Moderna's Senior Vice President, Digital, and the university story carries no Moderna quote [>MRNA-E09, >E10]. We found no Moderna confirmation of either. A later Moderna posting confirms that Benchling is in use, not the terms of the expansion [>MRNA-R24]. The full texts of Moderna's own newswire releases were blocked, and most were screened only by headline and summary, so a confirmation inside a release body could have been missed.

The Benchling row is an expanded commitment because the release says Benchling "today announced an expanded collaboration with Moderna" and states added scope, the move from technical development to the research organisation (C42-1) [>MRNA-E09]. It is T2 under AR7a, because the platform is being rolled out into Moderna's own research workflows. It is not T1: the release says Moderna's digital teams use the platform to "integrate proprietary machine learning models" and calls it "AI-ready", but names no discovery task (AR7a, C42-9) [>MRNA-E09]. The release describes the rollout in the present tense and says the scientists "will" be brought onto the platform, so the row records a rollout in progress, not a completed deployment (E4).

The University of Alberta row is a new T1 commitment, announced. The story gives no agreement, signing or start date, and a publication date is not substituted for an event date (D1, D3), so it counts only in the first-disclosed view [>MRNA-E10]. No Moderna funding is stated.

By event date, we counted no T1 initiative with a qualifying commitment change in W0 (5 October 2024 to 4 October 2025) or W1 (5 October 2025 to 5 October 2026). T2 is one in W0, the Benchling expansion, and zero in W1 [>MRNA-E09]. By first disclosure, T1 is zero in W0 and one in W1, the University of Alberta collaboration, whose event date is uncertain [>MRNA-E10]; T2 is one in W0 and zero in W1. No milestone and no negative change was disclosed in either theme. Existing capabilities first disclosed number two in T1 and two in T2 in W0 [>MRNA-E01, >E03, >E04], and two in T1 and two in T2 in W1 [>MRNA-E05, >E06, >E07]. They have no stated start date and are not counted as changes. The Applied Technologies lab automation team in Technical and CMC Development, a third T2 capability in W1 under rule set v0.4.2, is process development and is recorded as context under the v0.4.3 theme 2 boundary [>MRNA-E08].

Reviewer B read the Science Day launch of Lucy as a new commitment with an unknown event date. Under that reading T1 W1 by first disclosure would be two instead of one, and T2 W1 by first disclosure one instead of zero, both with the event date uncertain; the event-date view would not change [>MRNA-E05]. The adjudication kept it as a newly observed capability, because every source describes Lucy and the engine in the present or present progressive tense and none states a start date, investment, unit or go-live (E4, D4).

The adjudication notes record three further readings that would change a count. Reading the Benchling expansion as T1 as well would make T1 one in W0 in both views [>MRNA-E09]. Treating the university story's date as the event date would make T1 one in W1 by event date [>MRNA-E10]. The third affects recruitment and is given there [>MRNA-R21]. The opposite readings of borderline clarifications C42-2, C42-4 and C42-12 would change no count: no Moderna row is an in-licensed AI-derived asset, New Venture Labs is an internal incubator with no stated AI scope and was not rowed, and Moderna has no separately listed subsidiary in scope.

Coverage is partial in every cell, because the press release archive and partner newswire families are partial in both years. The annual report and 10-K family is complete in W0 and partial in W1. The other six families are complete in both years. The coverage table marks the annual report and 10-K family as not comparable between the years, so no comparison between the years is made.

Nine rows are recorded as context: leadership, enterprise AI, manufacturing AI, a site opening, a clinical AI programme and two workforce reductions (see Context).

Identified recruitment

On 6 October 2026 the Moderna Workday jobs list showed 237 requisitions, by both reviewers' counts. A common title filter hit 23 of them, each reviewer added 13 by title or function, and 37 requisitions were classified from their duties. We observed 8 relevant requisition postings in the R&D theme class, 4 T1 and 4 T2; no posting is tagged to both themes. No Moderna posting shows an openings field, so vacancy status is not recorded for any of the 8 and none has ambiguous vacancy status. A further 12 are enterprise roles, 8 are plant, quality or manufacturing roles, 5 are internships or co-op placements and 4 are out of scope. These are requisition postings listed on one day, not hires, headcount or a trend.

The T1 postings describe AI and computation roles in discovery, all in Cambridge, Massachusetts: - a Sr. Scientist, Protein Design, to apply AI-enabled design workflows to de novo antibodies, binders and antigens and to build multi-agent systems that "create closed-loop automated design-and-wet-lab-test systems" [>MRNA-R19] - a Principal Scientist, Protein Design, to lead in vitro selection campaigns for computationally designed candidates, working with computational protein design teams [>MRNA-R02]. Both protein design scientists report to the Senior Director, Computational Design and In Vitro Selection [>MRNA-R02, >R19] - a Sr. Research Associate, Protein Design, whose duties include developing "AI-assisted workflows for high-throughput protein screening and characterization" [>MRNA-R34] - a Sr. Scientist, Therapeutics & Translational Bioinformatics, to apply machine learning to multi-omics data, with duties that include therapeutic target prioritisation [>MRNA-R20]

One reviewer classed the research associate as a bench role outside the themes; under that reading the T1 split would be 3 [>MRNA-R34].

The T2 postings describe lab software, lab data and lab automation roles: - a Sr. Director, Software Engineering, in Cambridge, reporting to the Head of Digital for Research and CMC Development (D4RT), to lead the software engineering organisation supporting Research and CMC Development [>MRNA-R23] - a Product Manager, Digital for Research and Tech Dev, in Norwood, for "our internally developed applications and digital platforms (Benchling and AI enabled tools)" used by Research and Technical Development scientists, reporting into Moderna's Digital organisation [>MRNA-R24] - an Integration Lead for the Bioassay COE, Norwood, to administer LIMS and other lab systems and build Scitara DLX workflows that exchange data between analytical instruments, middleware and LIMS [>MRNA-R06] - a Principal Systems Engineer, Digital Lab Systems, Norwood, for lab automation on Hamilton liquid handling platforms, data integration between instruments, automation systems and LIMS, and "AI-enabled and machine learning-driven laboratory workflows" [>MRNA-R21]

The Digital Lab Systems posting places the role "within the QC Laboratory" but names only GLP and GCLP compliance and no GMP or release testing, so it is counted in T2 under C42-11, a borderline call. Under the opposite reading the R&D theme total would be 8 and the T2 split 4 [>MRNA-R21].

A Sr. Automation Engineer in the Automated Systems Engineering team within Applied Technologies, Norwood, to harden automated cell-based bioassay workflows for transfer into GMP settings, was counted in T2 under rule set v0.4.2. It is process development, so under the v0.4.3 theme 2 boundary it is out of scope and not counted [>MRNA-R04]. An Applied Technologies intern and co-op, supporting lab automation and robotics projects in Technical and CMC Development, are also process development; they are outside the R&D count and no longer carry a theme [>MRNA-R26, >R27]. Enterprise postings include AI security, AI readiness, AI red team and AI identity roles, a Senior AI Engineer for Supply Chain, Quality, Manufacturing and Finance, and Power Platform and AI engineers in Cambridge and Warsaw [>MRNA-R07, >R15, >R13, >R12, >R09, >R10, >R11, >R16]. Three CMC Digital data roles at Norwood serve quality, manufacturing and supply chain operations and are plant and quality roles [>MRNA-R17, >R18, >R33]. Two CMC Quantitative Sciences roles and a high-throughput research materials production role are R&D roles outside the themes (C42-20) [>MRNA-R28, >R29, >R22].

Posting dates come from a date posted field in the job data, or for one posting a relative label [>MRNA-R31]. They may record a refresh, so they are not reliable.

No LinkedIn company insights were collected for Moderna.

Technology mentions in recruitment

Mentions are classified from the exact posting wording. They do not establish installation, an incumbent contract or company-wide use. The table records 49 Moderna mentions: 25 explicit use, 5 integration or environment, 1 required experience, 2 preferred experience and 16 alternatives. - Named as existing systems in R&D postings: Benchling, among "our internally developed applications and digital platforms" [>MRNA-R24]. Scitara DLX, LabX, Hamilton and Chromeleon, which the Bioassay COE integration lead is to "Administer, configure, and maintain" [>MRNA-R06]. Hamilton liquid handling platforms and Hamilton VENUS software, used for automated QC assay workflows in the Digital Lab Systems posting [>MRNA-R21]. This is role-specific wording. - A category recorded as explicit use because the posting states the employer's own system: LIMS, in the phrase "existing Scitara and LIMS architecture"; no LIMS product is named [>MRNA-R06]. - Integration responsibilities: LES systems, which the integration lead also maintains, with no product named [>MRNA-R06], and LIMS platforms, with which the Digital Lab Systems engineer is to integrate instruments and automation [>MRNA-R21]. - Required experience: SoftMax [>MRNA-R06]. - Preferred experience: Hamilton STAR/Vantage liquid handlers, in the Applied Technologies posting now outside the R&D count [>MRNA-R04], and HPC [>MRNA-R19]. - Lists of examples: HighRes Cellario and Thermo CRS Momentum as scheduling software [>MRNA-R04]; RFdiffusion, ProteinMPNN, AlphaFold-family methods and Rosetta [>MRNA-R19]; AWS, GitHub or GitLab, Jupyter, Nextflow and Docker [>MRNA-R20]; Hamilton CTUs [>MRNA-R21]; ELN, LIMS and SDMS [>MRNA-R23].

No ELN product and no LIMS product is named as in use in an R&D posting. Outside R&D, manufacturing postings name DeltaV, Syncade, AVEVA PI and other GxP manufacturing systems as systems the role supports or owns [>MRNA-R01, >R08, >R25, >R30, >R31], and enterprise postings name Microsoft Power Platform [>MRNA-R10, >R11, >R16]. Placement and out-of-scope postings refer to laboratory robotics, liquid-handling systems and electronic laboratory notebooks with no product named [>MRNA-R35, >R22, >R36].

Deployment evidence

• At Science Day on 25 June 2026, Moderna's Chief Technology Officer, Research, introduced Lucy as "the heart of Moderna's scientific intelligence engine". The slides say "Lucy connects AI, automation, experimentation, and data into a continuously improving learning system" [>MRNA-E05]. The transcript describes a cycle from AI-driven hypothesis generation through mRNA production, lipid nanoparticle formulation and in vitro assays, and says "that is what we do within a closed-loop platform" [>MRNA-E05]. It says the OpenAI collaboration and other large language models let Moderna pull in publicly available data sets [>MRNA-E05]. Moderna's CEO wrote the same day that "we are building what we call our Scientific Intelligence Engine" [>MRNA-E05]. No start date, investment, unit or go-live is stated, and the CEO's wording is "building", so this is work in progress.
• Moderna's FY2024 10-K, filed on 21 February 2025, says "our digital and AI infrastructure allows our scientists to design novel mRNA constructs, use AI algorithms to optimize them and order them from our high throughput preclinical scale production line" [>MRNA-E01]. The FY2023 10-K was not checked, so this may have been disclosed earlier. An undated platform page describes mRNA DESIGN STUDIO, which "utilizes cloud-based computational capacity to run various algorithms we have developed to design each mRNA sequence"; it is outside both count views [>MRNA-E02].
• The 2025 proxy statement lists a "MAESTRO tool to facilitate rapid mRNA sequence design" among accomplishments for the 2022 to 2024 performance period. The source does not say the tool uses AI [>MRNA-E03].
• The 2024 Annual Report says "we have also introduced advanced robotics for high-throughput screening, automated quality control, and individualized neoantigen therapy manufacturing" [>MRNA-E04]. Only the research-lab uses fall in T2. Its first-public date rests on the PDF creation date and is uncertain.
• Postings first dated in W1 show a Computational Design and In Vitro Selection group doing AI-enabled protein design for discovery programmes (2 March 2026), a D4RT organisation (3 September 2026), and an Applied Technologies team that "develops and deploys innovative automation, robotics, and digital solutions" in CMC Development (4 September 2026) [>MRNA-E06, >E07, >E08]. The Applied Technologies team is process development, recorded as context under the v0.4.3 theme 2 boundary [>MRNA-E08]. These dates come from date posted fields that may record a refresh.
• Apart from enterprise AI usage figures recorded as context [>MRNA-E14, >E15], we found no adoption or benefit metric for these items in the reviewed sources.

Context

Leadership: Moderna's 3Q24 results slides of 7 November 2024 name Tracey Franklin as Chief People and Digital Technology Officer. The role has no stated discovery remit, so it is context (governance) under C42-7 [>MRNA-E11]. The Benchling release quotes Wade Davis as Senior Vice President, Digital [>MRNA-E09]. At Science Day David Huss, Chief Technology Officer, Research, said he is responsible for Moderna's platform science organisation [>MRNA-E05].

Enterprise AI, context under C42-9: Moderna's 2024 Annual Report says that in April 2024, before both windows, "we announced our ongoing collaboration with OpenAI to deploy ChatGPT Enterprise across the company" [>MRNA-E13]. The 2Q25 results slides of 1 August 2025 report growth in GPT use and a Deep Research spotlight on target product profiles, framed as cost efficiency [>MRNA-E14]. The 2025 shareholder letter, dated 5 January 2026, says the OpenAI collaboration supports how Moderna writes protocols and develops regulatory documents, and that "The team has written more than 4,000 GPTs across the entire company" [>MRNA-E15].

Other context: the 2025 Analyst Day release of 20 November 2025 describes production "incorporating automation, robotics and AI to increase cost efficiency and reduce waste" (manufacturing AI) [>MRNA-E16]. Moderna said on 24 September 2025 that "The Moderna Innovation and Technology Centre in Harwell, Oxfordshire is now fully operational"; only the headline and summary were read, and no lab digitalisation or AI scope appears in them [>MRNA-E17]. On its Q2 2026 call Moderna said it is using AI to develop its next neoantigen selection algorithm, which is patient-specific selection for a late-stage product and so clinical AI [>MRNA-E18].

Workforce: BioSpace reported on 14 February 2025 that "Moderna is looking to lay off about 50 employees on its digital team, or about 10% of roles within its two digital departments" [>MRNA-E12]. On 31 July 2025 Moderna announced an organisational restructuring as part of its plan to decrease GAAP operating expenses [>MRNA-E19]. Neither source links the reductions to AI in discovery or to lab digitalisation, so both are context.

We identified no qualifying pause or cancellation in the two themes in the searched sources. Both reviewers ran a negative-event search for each theme. We also identified no Moderna venture investment, acquisition, consortium membership or open model release in either theme in the searched sources. These are search results, not evidence that none occurred.

Coverage limits

• Search families complete for both themes in both years: results presentations and transcripts, consortium and public-private partnerships, academic collaborations, the corporate venture arm, one web search per event type and the negative-event searches. The annual report and 10-K family is complete in W0 and partial in W1. The press release archive and partner newswire families are partial in every cell.
• Cohort 2 reviewers had nine web searches each. These searches were not run, for lack of search budget: a PR Newswire search for Moderna AI, machine learning or laboratory releases; two searches for Moderna Benchling, LIMS, TetraScience or lab automation vendor releases and case studies; a search for research scope in the OpenAI collaboration; a search on whether MAESTRO uses AI [>MRNA-E03]; and a search on whether the Harwell centre has lab-digital scope [>MRNA-E17]. No site-restricted Business Wire or GlobeNewswire search was run.
• accesswire.com returned a Cloudflare 403 for all 126 release full-text requests one reviewer made and for the other reviewer's requests, accessnewswire.com also returned 403, and the api.quotemedia.com story widget returned no text. The reviewers screened the headlines and 300-character summaries of every Moderna release in both years, and read Science Day, Analyst Day, JPM and results releases through company PDFs, transcripts and blogs. The Harwell release and the organisational change releases of 16 June and 30 September 2026 were read from summaries only [>MRNA-E17].
• No reviewer reached the FY2025 10-K or the 2026 Annual Report by an allowed path. sec.gov returned 403, and the investor site links to app.quotemedia.com, whose robots.txt disallows all paths. A copy one reviewer fetched from that host is excluded, and nothing relies on it.
• The 4Q25 results transcript returned 403 at one CDN path; one reviewer read it on another path.
• Fierce Pharma blocked access, so the digital-team cuts rest on a BioSpace report [>MRNA-E12]. worldpharmaceuticals.net and technode.global also blocked access; the Benchling release was read on PR Newswire [>MRNA-E09]. preview.ualberta.ca disallows agents in robots.txt, so the university story was read on www.ualberta.ca [>MRNA-E10]. The pharmaphorum copy that dates the April 2024 OpenAI context row has no recorded robots.txt check; no count depends on it [>MRNA-E13].
• Rows drawn from job postings take the date posted field as their first public date; it may record a refresh [>MRNA-E06, >E07, >E08].
• Patents are not among the searched source families in the coverage table. Publication counts are raw Europe PMC query counts and are not events.
• Recruitment: both reviewers enumerated the same 237 requisitions on 6 October 2026 and applied a common title filter. Only the 37 requisitions classified are in the table.
• Two independent reviewers searched Moderna, and the final rows are their source-verified union. That union contains rows that each reviewer missed, but it does not show that both did not miss the same events. The Benchling expansion, the only T2 change, was found by one reviewer, through a phase 2 web search; the other reviewer's vendor search was not run [>MRNA-E09]. The MAESTRO tool and the Applied Technologies team were found by one reviewer, and the 2024 lab robotics disclosure by the other [>MRNA-E03, >E08, >E04].

Two questions to investigate (Ortent's interpretation)

1. Lab software, lab data and lab automation roles sit in several units: the D4RT organisation, whose software engineering leader is to "Guide engineering strategy across commercial SaaS platforms, custom applications, scientific systems" [>MRNA-R23, >E07]; a Digital product manager for Benchling and AI enabled tools in Research and Technical Development [>MRNA-R24]; Applied Technologies automation in Technical and CMC Development, which is process development outside T2 under the v0.4.3 boundary [>MRNA-R04, >E08]; a Bioassay COE integration lead for LIMS and Scitara [>MRNA-R06]; and Digital Lab Systems [>MRNA-R21]. Benchling describes a rollout across the research organisation [>MRNA-E09], and the Chief Technology Officer, Research, presents Lucy as connecting AI, automation, experimentation and data [>MRNA-E05]. What is the remit of each unit for scientific data capture, instrument integration and lab automation? Who decides on lab software and integration platforms, and how are the interfaces between D4RT, Applied Technologies and the Scientific Intelligence Engine governed?
2. AI in discovery appears in a protein design group building agentic design systems [>MRNA-R19, >R02, >E06], translational bioinformatics [>MRNA-R20], the Lucy learning system, which draws on the OpenAI collaboration and other large language models [>MRNA-E05], and a University of Alberta collaboration announced by the university with no Moderna funding stated [>MRNA-E10]. Enterprise AI sits with a Chief People and Digital Technology Officer [>MRNA-E11, >E13 to >E15], and an AI readiness programme manager is to "Manage vendors, schedule, scope, and cost" [>MRNA-R07]. Who holds decision rights over AI tools and external AI collaborations for discovery: the Research platform science organisation or the Digital organisation? How is funding for such work set while Moderna runs its restructuring to decrease operating expenses [>MRNA-E19, >E12]?

Sources for the main claims

• MRNA-E09 Benchling and Moderna expanded collaboration (PR Newswire): https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/benchling-and-moderna-collaborate-on-ai-driven-research-302448196.html
• MRNA-E10 University of Alberta, U of A partners with Moderna: https://www.ualberta.ca/en/engineering/about/news/2026/january/u-of-a-teams-with-moderna-to-harness-power-of-mrna-medicines.html
• MRNA-E05 Science Day 2026 slides: https://irp.cdn-website.com/89dd0539/files/uploaded/Moderna+Science+Day+2026_1030am.pdf
• MRNA-E05 Science Day 2026 transcript: https://irp.cdn-website.com/89dd0539/files/uploaded/MRNA-USQ_Transcript_2026-06-25+%282%29.pdf
• MRNA-E05 Science Day page with the CEO's post: https://www.modernatx.com/science-day
• MRNA-E01 Form 10-K for FY2024: https://irp.cdn-website.com/89dd0539/files/uploaded/MRNA_%28Moderna_Inc.%29_Annual_report_pursuant_to_Section_13_or_15%28d%29_%2810-K%29_2025-02-21.pdf
• MRNA-E04, E13 2024 Annual Report: https://irp.cdn-website.com/89dd0539/files/uploaded/mrna013406-ars.pdf
• MRNA-E06 Sr. Scientist, Protein Design posting R19527: https://modernatx.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/wday/cxs/modernatx/M_tx/job/Cambridge-Massachusetts/Scientist--Protein-Design_R19527
• MRNA-E07 Sr. Director, Software Engineering, D4RT posting R19689: https://modernatx.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/wday/cxs/modernatx/M_tx/job/Cambridge-Massachusetts/Sr-Director--Software-Engineering--Digital-for-Research---CMC-Development_R19689
• Other event rows and all requisitions: URLs and archived copies in the Moderna tables. No SRC source files are cited for Moderna.

Source index

Each ID in brackets links to the online source for that row. Job posting links come from a snapshot of the company job site on 6 October 2026; postings that have closed since are marked and no longer linked. Where a company site blocked access, the link goes to the copy that was read.