Strand was started by biological engineers working together at MIT. Building on the idea of creating smart therapies that are capable of making sophisticated decisions, they sought to apply the concept of the emerging field of mRNA therapeutics. This area was untapped by traditional synthetic biology, which led them to build their own mRNA “programming language,” creating the world’s first platform for mRNA smart therapies. Strand’s mRNA programming technology promises to make mRNA therapies safer and more effective by programming the location, timing, and intensity of therapeutic protein expression inside a patient’s body using mRNA-encoded logic circuits. These circuits can implement cell-type specific expression by sensing and classifying the unique miRNA expression signatures of cells, as well as controlling the dosage of protein expression by responding to exogenously administered small molecules.