Moderna Therapeutics

Moderna is working with Dr. Barney GrahamGraham, deputy director of the Vaccine Research Center at the NIH on the SARS-CoV-2 (2019-nCoV) vaccine development. Graham’s research team used sequence information of the 2019-nCoV posted by Chinese scientists on a public database to identify a region of the genetic code to be used to generate a vaccine. The scientists focused on the spike protein, which recognizes receptors or entry points on the host cell. A template for the SARS vaccine was used with the SARS-CoV-2 (2019-nCoV) genetic code swapped in. The sequence was sent to Moderna to make synthetic mRNA for production of protein in order to generate antibodies that target the spike protein.

Moderna is working with Dr. Barney Graham, deputy director of the Vaccine Research CenterResearch Center at the NIH on the SARS-CoV-2 (2019-nCoV) vaccine development. Graham’s research team used sequence information of the 2019-nCoV posted by Chinese scientists on a public database to identify a region of the genetic code to be used to generate a vaccine. The scientists focused on the spike protein, which recognizes receptors or entry points on the host cell. A template for the SARS vaccine was used with the SARS-CoV-2 (2019-nCoV) genetic code swapped in. The sequence was sent to Moderna to make synthetic mRNA for production of protein in order to generate antibodies that target the spike protein.

Moderna has a collaboration with Coalition for EpidemicEpidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to produce a vaccine against coronavirus to fight the 2019-nCoV outbreak. That funding will cover manufacturing costs for an mRNA vaccine candidate against the new strain of coronavirus. Preclinical tests and a phase 1 study are planned with supported from federal researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). In their approach for 2019-nCoV, Moderna is using the same technique used to produce a cancer vaccine in 40 days.