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Proven mRNA Technologies Embolden Vaccine and Drug Makers

In the vaccine industry, as well as in the broader pharmaceutical industry, expectations for mRNA technology used to be fairly modest. But all that changed…

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In the vaccine industry, as well as in the broader pharmaceutical industry, expectations for mRNA technology used to be fairly modest. But all that changed with the urgent response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Suddenly, the world witnessed a pair of mRNA breakthroughs. These were, of course, the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

To the casual observer, these vaccines may have seemed like singular achievements or overnight successes. However, they are part of a larger and older story, one that includes the development of many enabling technologies, including technologies for stabilizing mRNA and for engineering safe and effective liposomes and lipid nanoparticles. Other helpful developments included the adaptation of manufacturing insights from DNA vaccines to mRNA vaccines.

The story continues. That is, the technologies that helped bring about the first mRNA vaccines are inspiring new developments and raising expectations about additional boons. This optimistic take on the future of mRNA technologies is shared by all the experts quoted in this article. They represent a range of companies, and they cite progress in areas such as mRNA construct design and distributed manufacturing. The experts also raise concerns—some old (familiar manufacturing bottlenecks) and others new (unprecedented production challenges).

Bringing mRNA to fruition

The technologies behind mRNA vaccines have a long history. “The trend was definitely established in the mid-2010s toward mRNA therapies and what was required for their development,” says G. Brett Robb, PhD, scientific director for RNA and genome editing at New England Biolabs, a company that specializes in discovering and producing enzymes for molecular biology applications.

New England Biolabs (NEB) specializes in enzymes for molecular biology applications. Its headquarters (shown here) are located in Ipswich, MA. Nearby, in Rowley, MA, NEB produces GMP-grade reagents for customers who manufacture mRNA.

Robb points out that New England Biolabs has been supporting the development of mRNA therapeutics since the 1980s by developing and supplying products such as in vitro transcription kits. “Around the 2010s,” he recalls, “we released capping enzymes because we started to appreciate a trend in the research marketplace toward mRNA therapies for various things.”

In recent years, the trend has only been accelerating, given the increased interest in mRNA therapeutics. “As a modality, mRNA has really gained a lot of traction,” Robb affirms. Doubtless, the growing interest in mRNA therapeutics is largely due to the example set by the mRNA vaccines for SARS-CoV-2.

These vaccines progressed from viral sampling to approval more quickly than any other vaccines in history. They also showed impressive speed in entering large-scale production. By the end of 2021, nearly 3 billion mRNA vaccine doses had been manufactured, even though their production depends on lipid nanoparticle encapsulation, a technology new to mass production.

Distributed and modular manufacturing

On-site manufacturing of RNA-based therapeutics and vaccines “is an interesting trend,” Robb says. One manifestation of the trend, he notes, is a $60 million program backed by Wellcome Leap. The program, called RNA Response + Readiness (R3), is designed to encourage a global network of RNA-based biofoundries. When these manufacturing facilities are in place, they will probably need to employ stabilized enzyme formulations. According to Robb, such formulations could promote ease of shipping.

Another popular trend in biomanufacturing is the move to modular manufacturing. “There are lots of articles promoting modular manufacturing,” states Nigel Hall, managing director of WHP, an engineering company that recently finished the design and build of an Oxford Biomedica GMP facility for the large-scale manufacture of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine. “But what ‘modular’ means can differ from person to person.”

Oxford BioMedica GMP facility in Oxford, UK
WHP recently finished the design and build of an Oxford BioMedica GMP facility in Oxford, UK, for the large-scale manufacture of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine. The facility was built inside an old post office sorting building (shown here).

A modular manufacturing facility covers a large area and eschews fixed equipment. Instead, it relies on equipment that can be swiftly reconfigured to produce a variety of products. Potential advantages include being able to manufacture regionally to overcome border controls and adapt to changing geopolitical situations.

“A complete modular facility is lots of building blocks put together—what we call, ‘boxes in boxes,’” Hall remarks. “But there are lots of different views.”

“We’ve done one of the larger modular facilities,” he continues. “For us, ‘modular’ feels like a bit of a buzz word.”

Modules offer flexibility, but they also occasion compromises. That is, modules need to fit within existing room configurations, accommodate support pillars, and so on. Accordingly, Hall points out that the modular approach may not be the best solution for every vaccine manufacturer interested in building a new facility. For Hall, the important thing is to “make sure that the customer ends up with a good result.”

WHP holds that existing buildings shouldn’t be overlooked, especially in expensive high-density areas. The Oxford Biomedica facility was built in Oxford, inside an old post office sorting building. Another repurposing project by WHP involves fitting a synthetic DNA plant into a former Victorian pumping station in south London.

Benchtop synthesizers

Besides facility-scale innovations, there are benchtop-scale innovations. Consider the emergence of benchtop DNA and mRNA printers. “We’re in the DNA writing business,” says Krishna Kannan, PhD, director of research and development at Codex DNA. He asserts that the Codex DNA BioXp system is the first benchtop system for the synthesis of biopolymers.

Kannan describes how a Codex DNA user can print DNA or mRNA for testing vaccines against viruses such as SARS-CoV-2: To start, the customer inputs a desired sequence into the company’s web portal. Then, three to five days later, the customer receives a kit. Finally, the customer plugs the kit into the BioXp system, initiating a process that takes 16–20 hours to produce, purify, and error-correct the sequence.

Codex DNA's BioXp 3250
Codex DNA offers the BioXp 3250, an automated benchtop instrument that is designed to produce synthetic DNA and mRNA starting from a DNA sequence. The customer inputs their desired sequence into the company’s web portal to order a kit that can be plugged into the instrument. BioXp kits contain building blocks and reagents, including the company’s Gibson Assembly reagents, that enable synthetic biology workflow applications.

“To contextualize this, when people want to test mRNA vaccines, they usually make DNA templates,” Kannan remarks. “These are usually synthesized through a third party. Or people just order mRNA and wait a few months to get it to test.”

After the pandemic began, candidate sequences were needed so urgently that people grew impatient with existing sequence workflows. Indeed, people started to consider the advantages of benchtop devices. According to Kannan, these advantages go beyond the immediate need for speed. He believes that in the future, benchtop mRNA printers could help drive the adoption of decentralized manufacturing.

“With mRNA vaccines, there has to be a cold-chain supply chain, which makes it difficult to reach areas without rapid refrigeration,” he points out. “Our ultimate aim, as a company, is to help make needle-ready mRNA vaccines—where you just place machines anywhere in the world and quash epidemics as they arise.”

Another company offering a benchtop system for DNA printing is DNA Script. This company launched the system last summer and named it Syntax. According to Thomas Ybert, PhD, DNA Script’s founder and CEO, Syntax is fully automated and capable of producing 60-mer oligonucleotides in 13 hours. He adds that Syntax, the company’s first product, “allows life sciences professionals to access DNA on demand.”

Ybert asserts that Syntax is unique in using enzymatic catalysts rather than chemical solvents to synthesize DNA. He explains that the company’s approach, Enzymatic DNA Synthesis (EDS), builds DNA strands much like nature does and presents many advantages over older phosphoramidite chemistry. For example, unlike phosphoramidite chemistry, EDS doesn’t produce toxic organic waste. He declares, “If we’re going to ramp up our RNA/DNA production capabilities, we need to be as green as possible.”

Innovations in mRNA

Variations in the structure of mRNA therapeutics is another emerging trend, according to David Ricketts, PhD, director of business development at eTheRNA. “I think there are going to be lots of new takes on different types of RNA,” he says, “along with new delivery platforms and new formulation technologies.”

Further developments in mRNA technology are likely, he says, “but there’s [also] a growing interest in circular RNA and self-amplifying RNA.” Circular RNAs, or circRNAs, play important roles in cellular processes, and their dysregulation been implicated in many types of disease, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, and neurological disease. CircRNAs are also seen as possible future candidates for SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.

As Robb explains, current antigen-encoding RNAs on the market are linear and incorporate a cap and a tail. He adds that circRNAs are, in contrast, covalently closed and lack free 3′ and 5′ ends. Self-replicating RNAs are long compared to current RNAs, and they may also be useful in the design and development of new vaccines.

Ricketts also predicts innovation in the structure of mRNAs, such as new capping technologies and the use of modified bases such as N1-methylpseudouridine. “The intellectual property is tightly controlled by a small number of companies,” he observes. He adds that he believes companies offering different, cheaper alternatives will expand the marketplace and open new opportunities.

Facing the challenges

“The view in the market is that, since Moderna and Pfizer produced mRNA vaccines in a short space of time, that means it’s easy to do,” Ricketts relates. He argues that a major challenge to the industry is that mRNA vaccines are not yet an easy and straightforward technology platform.

Among the things companies should consider is ensuring that the lipid nanoparticle (LNP) they’re using is matched to their mRNA payload. “You don’t just stick one inside the other,” he insists. “It’s more complex than that.” He recommends, from a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) perspective, that companies “undertake the RNA and LNP formulation side by side, in parallel, and make sure they’re well matched.”

Another issue is a perceived bottleneck in manufacturing capacity for viral vector–based therapies and vaccines. This is a motivation behind a new 15,000-square-meter site built by Exothera, a new CDMO that forms part of life sciences company Univercells.

“The lack of manufacturing capacity, in the United States and in Europe, and even worldwide, was the first reason to set up a new CDMO,” explains Thibault Jonckheere, Exothera’s CEO. He says that the bottleneck, which is already tight because of viral vector–based vaccines against COVID-19, is bound to become even tighter with the arrival of newly approved gene and cell therapies.

The new facility, located 30 minutes from Brussels, will feature two buildings—one for R&D, quality control, and clinical phases of development, and another for large-scale manufacturing. “We want to set up the commercial building from the beginning,” he notes. “Some of our clients transition into commercial phases very fast.”

Exothera describes itself as a mid-sized CDMO, as does eTheRNA, which says that it has—unlike some of the bigger CDMOs—capacity for new therapeutics. “What we’re seeing is that some of the more established CDMOs in the market don’t seem to have the space and pipeline to match customers’ needs for trials—they have a big backlog,” Ricketts maintains. “We’re a smaller company and probably less well known, and we have good availability in our GMP plant.”

Tackling formulation

A final challenge is formulation of mRNA vaccines. “We need to consider we’re not dealing with simple solutions, but with complex formulations where analytical techniques are important to fully characterize them,” advises Vincenza Pironti, PhD, global subject matter expert for sterile drug products at Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Another formulation challenge she identifies is the need to protect sensitive, high-value products. “[Our processes] need to be as well planned and streamlined as possible,” she says, emphasizing details such as minimizing the time vaccines spend at room temperature. (Some vaccines need to be stored at very cold temperatures, such as −60 or −70°C.)

For Pironti, a major trend going forward is the application of digitalization in the planning and streamlining of processes. “Digitalization is important,” she says. “It’s a hot topic in the industry right now.”

The post Proven mRNA Technologies Embolden Vaccine and Drug Makers appeared first on GEN - Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.

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Study: Life’s building blocks are surprisingly stable in Venus-like conditions

If there is life in the solar system beyond Earth, it might be found in the clouds of Venus. In contrast to the planet’s blisteringly inhospitable surface,…

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If there is life in the solar system beyond Earth, it might be found in the clouds of Venus. In contrast to the planet’s blisteringly inhospitable surface, Venus’ cloud layer, which extends from 30 to 40 miles above the surface, hosts milder temperatures that could support some extreme forms of life. 

Credit: Credit: JAXA/J. J. Petkowski

If there is life in the solar system beyond Earth, it might be found in the clouds of Venus. In contrast to the planet’s blisteringly inhospitable surface, Venus’ cloud layer, which extends from 30 to 40 miles above the surface, hosts milder temperatures that could support some extreme forms of life. 

If it’s out there, scientists have assumed that any Venusian cloud inhabitant would look very different from life forms on Earth. That’s because the clouds themselves are made from highly toxic droplets of sulfuric acid — an intensely corrosive chemical that is known to dissolve metals and destroy most biological molecules on Earth. 

But a new study by MIT researchers may challenge that assumption. Appearing today in the journal Astrobiology, the study reports that, in fact, some key building blocks of life can persist in solutions of concentrated sulfuric acid. 

The study’s authors have found that 19 amino acids that are essential to life on Earth are stable for up to four weeks when placed in vials of sulfuric acid at concentrations similar to those in Venus’ clouds. In particular, they found that the molecular “backbone” of all 19 amino acids remained intact in sulfuric acid solutions ranging in concentration from 81 to 98 percent.  

“What is absolutely surprising is that concentrated sulfuric acid is not a solvent that is universally hostile to organic chemistry,” says study co-author Janusz Petkowski, a research affiliate in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS).

“We are finding that building blocks of life on Earth are stable in sulfuric acid, and this is very intriguing for the idea of the possibility of life on Venus,” adds study author Sara Seager, MIT’s Class of 1941 Professor of Planetary Sciences in EAPS and a professor in the departments of Physics and of Aeronautics and Astronautics. “It doesn’t mean that life there will be the same as here. In fact, we know it can’t be. But this work advances the notion that Venus’ clouds could support complex chemicals needed for life.”

The study’s co-authors include first author Maxwell Seager, an undergraduate in the Department of Chemistry at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Seager’s son, and William Bains, a research affiliate at MIT and a scientist at Cardiff University.

Building blocks in acid

The search for life in Venus’ clouds has gained momentum in recent years, spurred in part by a controversial detection of phosphine — a molecule that is considered to be one signature of life — in the planet’s atmosphere. While that detection remains under debate, the news has reinvigorated an old question: Could Earth’s sister planet actually host life? 

In search of an answer, scientists are planning several missions to Venus, including the first largely privately funded mission to the planet, backed by California-based launch company Rocket Lab. That mission, on which Seager is the science principal investigator, aims to send a spacecraft through the planet’s clouds to analyze their chemistry for signs of organic molecules. 

Ahead of the mission’s January 2025 launch, Seager and her colleagues have been testing various molecules in concentrated sulfuric acid to see what fragments of life on Earth might also be stable in Venus’ clouds, which are estimated to be orders of magnitude more acidic than the most acidic places on Earth.

“People have this perception that concentrated sulfuric acid is an extremely aggressive solvent that will chop everything to pieces,” Petkowski says. “But we are finding this is not necessarily true.”

In fact, the team has previously shown that complex organic molecules such as some fatty acids and nucleic acids remain surprisingly stable in sulfuric acid. The scientists are careful to emphasize, as they do in their current paper, that “complex organic chemistry is of course not life, but there is no life without it.” 

In other words, if certain molecules can persist in sulfuric acid, then perhaps the highly acidic clouds of Venus are habitable, if not necessarily inhabited. 

In their new study, the team turned their focus on amino acids — molecules that combine  to make essential proteins, each with their own specific function. Every living thing on Earth requires amino acids to make proteins that in turn carry out life-sustaining functions, from breaking down food to generating energy, building muscle, and repairing tissue. 

“If you consider the four major building blocks of life as nucleic acid bases, amino acids, fatty acids, and carbohydrates, we have demonstrated that some fatty acids can form micelles and vesicles in sulfuric acid, and the nucleic acid bases are stable in sulfuric acid. Carbohydrates have been shown to be highly reactive in sulfuric acid,” Maxwell
Seager explains. “That only left us with amino acids as the last major building block to
study.”

A stable backbone

The scientists began their studies of sulfuric acid during the pandemic, carrying out their experiments in a home laboratory. Since that time, Seager and her son continued work on chemistry in concentrated sulfuric acid. In early 2023, they ordered powder samples of 20 “biogenic” amino acids — those amino acids that are essential to all life on Earth. They dissolved each type of amino acid in vials of sulfuric acid mixed with water, at concentrations of 81 and 98 percent, which represent the range that exists in Venus’ clouds. 

The team then let the vials incubate for a day before transporting them to MIT’s Department of Chemistry Instrumentation Facility (DCIF), a shared, 24/7 laboratory that offers a number of automated and manual instruments for MIT scientists to use. For their part, Seager and her team used the lab’s nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer to analyze the structure of amino acids in sulfuric acid. 

After analyzing each vial several times over four weeks, the scientists found, to their surprise, that the basic molecular structure, or “backbone” in 19 of the 20 amino acids remained stable and unchanged, even in highly acidic conditions.

“Just showing that this backbone is stable in sulfuric acid doesn’t mean there is life on Venus,” notes Maxwell Seager. “But if we had shown that this backbone was compromised, then there would be no chance of life as we know it.” 

The team acknowledges that Venus’ cloud chemistry is likely messier than the study’s “test tube” conditions. For instance, scientists have measured various trace gases, in addition to sulfuric acid, in the planet’s clouds. As such, the team plans to incorporate certain trace gases in future experiments. 

“There are only a few groups in the world now that are working on chemistry in sulfuric acid, and they will all agree that no one has intuition,” adds Sara Seager. “I think we are just more happy than anything that this latest result adds one more ‘yes’ for the possibility of life on Venus.”

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Written by Jennifer Chu, MIT News

Paper: “Stability of 20 Biogenic Amino Acids in Concentrated Sulfuric Acid: Implications for the Habitability of Venus’ Clouds”

https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/ast.2023.0082

Journal

Astrobiology

DOI

10.1089/ast.2023.0082

Article Title

“Stability of 20 Biogenic Amino Acids in Concentrated Sulfuric Acid: Implications for the Habitability of Venus’ Clouds”

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Bacteria subtype linked to growth in up to 50% of human colorectal cancers, Fred Hutch researchers report

Researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center have found that a specific subtype of a microbe commonly found in the mouth is able to travel to the gut and…

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Researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center have found that a specific subtype of a microbe commonly found in the mouth is able to travel to the gut and grow within colorectal cancer tumors. This microbe is also a culprit for driving cancer progression and leads to poorer patient outcomes after cancer treatment.

Credit: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center

Researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center have found that a specific subtype of a microbe commonly found in the mouth is able to travel to the gut and grow within colorectal cancer tumors. This microbe is also a culprit for driving cancer progression and leads to poorer patient outcomes after cancer treatment.

The findings, published March 20 in the journal Nature, could help improve therapeutic approaches and early screening methods for colorectal cancer, which is the second most common cause of cancer deaths in adults in the U.S. according to the American Cancer Society.

Examining colorectal cancer tumors removed from 200 patients, the Fred Hutch team measured levels of Fusobacterium nucleatum, a bacterium known to infect tumors. In about 50% of the cases, they found that only a specific subtype of the bacterium was elevated in the tumor tissue compared to healthy tissue.

The researchers also found this microbe in higher numbers within stool samples of colorectal cancer patients compared with stool samples from healthy people.

“We’ve consistently seen that patients with colorectal tumors containing Fusobacterium nucleatum have poor survival and poorer prognosis compared with patients without the microbe,” explained Susan Bullman, Ph.D., Fred Hutch cancer microbiome researcher and co-corresponding study author. “Now we’re finding that a specific subtype of this microbe is responsible for tumor growth. It suggests therapeutics and screening that target this subgroup within the microbiota would help people who are at a higher risk for more aggressive colorectal cancer.”

In the study, Bullman and co-corresponding author Christopher D. Johnston, Ph.D., Fred Hutch molecular microbiologist, along with the study’s first author Martha Zepeda-Rivera, Ph.D., a Washington Research Foundation Fellow and Staff Scientist in the Johnston Lab, wanted to discover how the microbe moves from its typical environment of the mouth to a distant site in the lower gut and how it contributes to cancer growth.

First they found a surprise that could be important for future treatments. The predominant group of Fusobacterium nucleatum in colorectal cancer tumors, thought to be a single subspecies, is actually composed of two distinct lineages known as “clades.”

“This discovery was similar to stumbling upon the Rosetta Stone in terms of genetics,” Johnston explained. “We have bacterial strains that are so phylogenetically close that we thought of them as the same thing, but now we see an enormous difference between their relative abundance in tumors versus the oral cavity.”

By separating out the genetic differences between these clades, the researchers found that the tumor-infiltrating Fna C2 type had acquired distinct genetic traits suggesting it could travel from the mouth through the stomach, withstand stomach acid and then grow in the lower gastrointestinal tract. The analysis revealed 195 genetic differences between the clades.

Then, comparing tumor tissue with healthy tissue from patients with colorectal cancer, the researchers found that only the subtype Fna C2 is significantly enriched in colorectal tumor tissue and is responsible for colorectal cancer growth.

Further molecular analyses of two patient cohorts, including over 200 colorectal tumors, revealed the presence of this Fna C2 lineage in approximately 50% of cases.

The researchers also found in hundreds of stool samples from people with and without colorectal cancer that Fna C2 levels were consistently higher in colorectal cancer.

“We  have pinpointed the exact bacterial lineage that is associated with colorectal cancer, and that knowledge is critical for developing effective preventive and treatment methods,” Johnston said.

He and Bullman believe their study presents significant opportunities for developing microbial cellular therapies, which use modified versions of bacterial strains to deliver treatments directly into tumors.

###

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center unites individualized care and advanced research to provide the latest cancer treatment options while accelerating discoveries that prevent, treat and cure cancer and infectious diseases worldwide.

Based in Seattle, Fred Hutch is an independent, nonprofit organization and the only National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center in Washington. We have earned a global reputation for our track record of discoveries in cancer, infectious disease and basic research, including important advances in bone marrow transplantation, immunotherapy, HIV/AIDS prevention and COVID-19 vaccines. Fred Hutch operates eight clinical care sites that provide medical oncology, infusion, radiation, proton therapy and related services. Fred Hutch also serves as UW Medicine’s cancer program.

Journal

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-024-07182-w

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Human tissue samples

Article Title

A distinct Fusobacterium nucleatum clade dominates the colorectal cancer niche

Article Publication Date

20-Mar-2024

COI Statement

Note: Fred Hutch and its scientists who contributed to these discoveries may stand to benefit from their commercialization.

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Fashion needs stronger storytelling that is more inclusive, relevant and responsible

Representing 2% of global GDP, the fashion industry must use its cultural reach to drive a shift towards a more sustainable and equitable industry.

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The fashion industry could not exist without storytelling. Compelling and aspirational stories conveyed through catwalks, campaigns and social media are the stuff that make garments fashionable, fostering a strong desire to be seen wearing them.

Fashion’s stories can spread positive messaging about issues that affect us all. In 2020, Stella McCartney’s Paris show featured models wearing cartoonish animal costumes. This humorous stunt emphasised a serious point about the “planet-friendly” brand’s pledge not to use leather, fur, skins, feathers or animal glues.

But more often, the darker, more unpalatable truth is that fashion’s storytelling drives overconsumption. And it defines unrealistic beauty expectations that exclude many by perpetuating western standards about what is normal and acceptable.

As a cultural historian who researches fashion, I believe the industry has to do better to effect change, and this can be achieved through stronger, more inclusive and responsible storytelling.

Fashion and world problems

According to recent fashion industry reports, storytelling is becoming more prominent as brands seek to demonstrate their social responsibility by forging deeper relationships with consumers. The increased significance of storytelling within fashion can be linked to two themes that have defined social and political debate about the world’s post-COVID recovery: self and society.

Consumers want more meaningful experiences that enable them to explore their identities and connect with others. Fashion is the ideal medium for this, especially during a time of social and political unease. The industry’s global reach means that visual cues and messaging conveyed through clothing campaigns can be easily shared and understood.

The Business of Fashion’s report, The State of Fashion 2024, links the increased importance of storytelling to consumers being “more demanding when it comes to authenticity and relatability”. People want to buy brands that share and support their values.

The consumer group most concerned to align their lifestyle choices and beliefs with the companies that clothe them is Gen-Z – people born between 1996 and 2010 – who “value pursuing their own unique identities and appreciate diversity”.

The increasing prominence of storytelling in fashion is also linked to the industry’s global sway and corresponding social responsibility. Organisations like the UN are increasingly clear that the fashion industry will only help tackle the global challenges emphasised by COVID if it uses its influence to change consumers’ mindsets.

The uneven social impact of the pandemic, which emphasised longstanding inequalities, provided a wake-up call to take action on many global problems, including climate change, overconsumption and racial discrimination. This makes the fashion industry, which contributes 2% to global GDP, a culprit but also a potential champion for driving change.

The British Fashion Council’s Fashion Diversity Equality & Inclusion Report, published in January 2024, highlights “fashion’s colossal power to influence, to provide cultural reference and guide social trends”. Similarly, the UN’s Fashion Communication Playbook, published last year, urges the industry to use its “cultural reach, powers of persuasion and educational role to both raise awareness and drive a shift towards a more sustainable and equitable industry”.

To do this, the UN’s report urges storytellers, imagemakers and role models to change the narrative of the fashion industry. They are asked to educate consumers and inspire them to alter their behaviour if it can help create positive change.

Fashion’s new stories

Since the pandemic, there is evidence the fashion industry has begun to change the content and form of the stories it tells, chiefly by putting a human face on current global challenges. Large-scale, entrenched social problems are being explored through real-life stories. This can help people to understand the problems that confront them, and grasp their role in working towards overcoming them.

One example is Nike’s Move to Zero campaign, a global sustainability initiative which launched during the pandemic in 2020. Instead of endless statistics and apocalyptic warnings about crisis-point climate emergency, Nike encourages people to “refresh” sports gear with maintenance and repair. Old Nike products that have been recreated by designers are sold through pop-ups. When salvage is not possible, Nike provides ways for people to recycle and donate old products.

By encouraging relatively small changes that align the lifecycle of a product with consumers’ everyday lives, Nike’s campaign challenges the traditional idea of clothes being new, immediate and ultimately disposable by making change aspirational.

Narrative hang-ups

While some fashion brands are rethinking the stories they tell, my recent book, Hang-Ups: Reflections on the Causes and Consequences of Fashion’s Western Centrism, explains that some of fashion’s most powerful and harmful stories are deep-rooted.

Concepts defined during the 18th and 19th centuries – civilisation, anthropology, sexology – still influence how the fashion industry engages with age, gender, race and sex. Its drive for newness and the way it pushes the idea that purchasing expensive brands brings automatic status is also based on traditional western social values that fit poorly with 21st-century perspectives and priorities.

The persistence of centuries-old attitudes is apparent too in Nike’s Move to Zero campaign, however well-intentioned. While the initiative is clearly conceived to influence consumer behaviour in a positive way, it still doesn’t fundamentally address what the fashion industry is and does. But at the very least, it accepts that fashion functions through high consumption and the sense of status that owning and wearing a brand confers.

Throwing everything out

One of the key points I make in my book is that effective change will be more likely if we understand how the industry developed into what it is today. This calls for more audacious storytelling that critiques notions of normality, acceptability and inclusivity.

One example is Swedish brand Avavav, which commits itself to “creative freedom driven by humour, entertainment and design evolution”. In February 2024, the brand’s Milan catwalk show concluded with models being pelted with litter. This experimental performance explored prevailing social media stories by calling out online trolls and highlighting the hurt of hate speech, within and beyond the fashion industry.

Naturally, it caused a sensation and was widely covered in the media. A stunt perhaps, but it got people talking and drew attention to designer Beate Karlsson’s message about online hate. Clearly, compelling and innovative storytelling has the power to change minds and behaviour.

Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.

Benjamin Wild does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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