Indian scientists awarded grant to develop mRNA vaccine technology 

A team of Indian researchers who have been working on developing mRNA vaccine technology have been awarded a grant by Ignite Life Science Foundation. Both Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccine use mRNA technology to offer protection against SARS‑CoV‑2. 

The mRNA vaccine instructs the cells to generate a harmless spike protein found on the surface of the novel coronavirus that initiates the COVID-19 infection. The instruction to generate the spike protein spurs an immune response, including generation of antibodies specific to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.

The mRNA vaccines have reportedly been highly effective against COVID-19 infection, especially against severe cases.

Ignite Life Science Foundation's Grant 

• The Ignite Life Science Foundation (ILSF) has awarded its first grant award to the team of researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (Bengaluru) and the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (Faridabad) for "pandemic preparedness" research.

• The amount of the grant has not been disclosed. The grant is expected to support the team in their research for developing for the first time in India the technology platform and reagents required to design, make and test novel mRNA vaccines.

• The research team comprises Professor Raghavan Varadarajan, Dr. Mrinmoy De and Dr. Siddharth Jhunjhunwala (IISc) and Dr. Amit Awasthi (Translational Health Science and Technology Institute-Faridabad).

• The ILSF said in a statement that they hope their work will form the basis for India's ability to respond quickly to future pandemics, as well as improve the nation's ability to respond to new variants of SARS-CoV-2.

• The grant will be given for a period of three years and it will fund research to develop the platform technologies for mRNA vaccine development.

Why is mRNA vaccine development technology important?

According to Professor Shahid Jameel, Scientific Advisory Board Member at ILSF, "the mRNA vaccine development technology is vital for India to mount a rapid and effective response to future pandemics  and successful execution on this project will seed the creation of much-needed capabilities in mRNA vaccine development in India."

He stated that the investigators will not only work on developing an mRNA vaccine against new variants of SARS-Cov2 but also make an attempt to develop methods to generate thermostable RNA vaccines, which would be critical for resource-poor tropical regions of the world.

Ignite Life Science Foundation 

• The Ignite Life Science Foundation is a non-profit scientific research institution founded by professional scientists, academics and entrepreneurs.

• The foundation aims to fund and enable scientists to pursue their research projects in an uninhibited and uninterrupted manner. 

• The Foundation has been created and is managed by a group of professionals who believe in the cause of science for India. These professionals belong to different fields, especially scientific research, academia and management. 

• The key vision behind setting up the foundation was to create an independent self-sustaining body for funding Indian Life science research, both basic and applied. 

Also read: Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine: How do mRNA vaccines work against COVID-19? Check out FAQs