Respiratory Vaccine Maker Raises $3.4M in Seed Funds
Summary
According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the virus is the most common cause of pneumonia and bronchiolitis, inflammation of the small airways in the lungs, among children in the U.S. under 1 year of age. Moore and company chief scientist Rodney Tang founded Meissa Vaccines to commercialize Moore’s work showing an engineered form of respiratory syncytial virus could protect against its infections. The company’s technology adapts those techniques, which combine genetic engineering and synthetic biology to produce a live but weakened virus that induces an immune reaction protecting against infections. That technology weakens the virus by sharply reducing the expression of codons, sequences of three DNA molecules that correspond to specific amino acids in the production of proteins. The company also received a separate Small Business Innovation Research grant from NIH in 2017 to develop a vaccine protecting against human rhinoviruses, responsible for the common cold, but can also lead to more serious illnesses.