AI and I: DARPA Funding for Moderna’s mRNA Technology

Boyle, who drafted the 1989 U.S. Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act, died on January 30, 2025, at age 74 from undisclosed causes… find evidence to support Prof. Francis Boyle’s long-standing claims that COVID-19 and mRNA vaccines originated as DARPA-funded bioweapons, drawing from his 2021 interviews where he cited Pentagon grants to Moderna and gain-of-function research at UNC and Wuhan…

Prof. Francis Boyle has asserted that mRNA vaccine technology, exemplified by Moderna’s platform, was developed under U.S. military auspices as a potential bioweapon or countermeasure to engineered biological threats. Substantial public records confirm early and significant DARPA investment in Moderna’s mRNA research, framed explicitly around defense against “emerging infectious diseases and engineered biological threats.”

In October 2013, DARPA awarded Moderna up to $25 million through its ADEPT: PROTECT program to develop mRNA therapeutics for rapid antibody production against unknown pathogens, including those potentially weaponized. This grant, totaling $24.6 million over five years plus a $0.7 million seedling award, supported preclinical and clinical advancement of mRNA candidates for immune defense. Moderna’s own announcements and partnership pages corroborate this, noting the funding’s focus on vaccines and antibodies for threats like Chikungunya, with broader implications for biothreats.

DARPA’s involvement predates COVID-19, with investments in nucleic acid vaccines starting in 2011 under ADEPT to protect military personnel from infectious diseases. By 2021, DARPA extended this through the Nucleic Acids On-Demand World-Wide (NOW) program, granting up to $5 million to a Moderna-DNA Script partnership for mobile, on-demand vaccine manufacturing to counter pandemics—explicitly including engineered viral threats. A 2023 academic analysis details how DARPA’s “exceptional” role in basic science funding circumvented market failures, directly enabling mRNA’s maturation into COVID-19 vaccines.

Further scrutiny arose in 2020 when Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) documented Moderna’s failure to disclose this DARPA funding in over a dozen U.S. patent applications for mRNA inventions, prompting a Department of Defense investigation. A KEI report highlights two DARPA grants (~$25 million total) as foundational to Moderna’s platform, with inventions “conceived in the course of research supported by the DARPA awards.” Post-pandemic, DARPA credited its decade-long mRNA efforts—including the 2013 Moderna award—for enabling rapid COVID-19 vaccine deployment, with Moderna’s shot receiving FDA EUA in December 2020. Overall U.S. federal investment in mRNA R&D exceeded $2.3 billion by 2022, with DARPA’s early signals validating the technology’s biodefense potential.

This funding aligns with Boyle’s narrative of military origins, as DARPA’s mandate emphasizes “war-winning capabilities” against biological weapons.

Gain-of-Function Research Linking UNC and Wuhan Institute of Virology

Boyle has pointed to gain-of-function (GOF) experiments—enhancing pathogens’ transmissibility or virulence—as central to engineering SARS-CoV-2, citing collaborations between UNC Chapel Hill’s Ralph Baric and Wuhan’s Shi Zhengli. Declassified documents, congressional probes, and peer-reviewed papers substantiate extensive U.S.-funded GOF work on bat coronaviruses at these labs, raising lab-leak risks.

A 2015 Nature Medicine paper by Baric, Shi, and colleagues detailed creating a chimeric SARS-like virus (SHC014-MA15) by inserting WIV’s spike protein into a mouse-adapted SARS backbone, enabling human airway cell infection—classic GOF to assess pandemic potential. This work, NIH-funded via EcoHealth Alliance (EHA), occurred amid a 2014–2017 U.S. GOF moratorium, yet proceeded under exemptions. EHA channeled ~$600,000 to WIV for bat coronavirus research, including serial passaging to boost infectivity, which NIH flagged as potential GOF in 2016 but accepted EHA’s self-assessment without further review.

Congressional investigations (2021–2025) revealed NIH concerns over EHA-WIV experiments creating “superviruses,” with Baric warning in the 2015 study of enhanced pathogenicity risks. Former CDC Director Robert Redfield claimed in 2024 that SARS-CoV-2’s birthplace was Baric’s UNC lab, citing GOF collaborations with Shi. A 2025 White House declaration affirmed a lab origin, tying it to WIV’s GOF on SARS-related viruses.

UNC’s BSL-3 lab reported multiple “near misses” since 2015, including potential exposures to lab-created coronaviruses during routine tasks—incidents echoing WIV biosafety lapses. Baric’s 2017 PLOS Pathogens paper (NIH-funded) engineered chimeric bat coronaviruses for human cell entry, scrutinized as GOF despite denials. Shi’s WIV team conducted similar serial passage under BSL-2/3, which Baric later deemed “irresponsible” for high-risk coronaviruses. A 2024 Undark analysis highlighted these U.S.-China ties as fueling lab-leak hypotheses, with Baric’s work enabling hybrid viruses akin to SARS-CoV-2 features.

These collaborations, per Boyle, exemplify offensive bioweapons research disguised as defensive science, with U.S. funding (~$3.7 million to EHA for WIV projects) enabling pathogen manipulation.

Broader Context on Bioweapon Intent

While direct proof of SARS-CoV-2 as an intentional bioweapon remains elusive—U.S. intelligence assesses low evidence for engineering—Boyle’s circumstantial case draws from WIV’s BSL-4 proximity to the outbreak, historical lab leaks (e.g., 1977 H1N1), and the above funding/GOF patterns. A 2020 critical review echoes Boyle, citing genomic “gain-of-function” signatures and U.S.-China ties as biowarfare indicators. British and U.S. intelligence by April 2020 viewed lab origins as “credible,” amplifying Boyle’s early warnings. Critics label this conspiratorial, but the documented military funding and risky GOF provide substantive pillars for his framework.