Team Of Scientists From IISc Bengaluru And THSTI Faridabad Receive Grant For Developing mRNA Vaccine Technology

A group of researchers from the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI) Faridabad) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru have been rewarded with a grant by the Ignite Life Science Foundation (ILSF) for its research on ‘pandemic preparedness.’

The grant will last for a period of three years and assist the team’s research in developing the technology platform and reagents that are needed to design, make and test novel m-RNA vaccines for the first time in India.

The group of scientists is comprised of Dr Mrinmoy De, Dr Siddharth Jhunjhunwala and Professor Raghavan Varadarajan from IISc (Bengaluru) and Dr Amit Awasthi from THSTI (Faridabad).

“We hope their work will form the basis for India's ability to respond quickly to future pandemics, as well as improve our ability to respond to new variants of SARS-CoV-2,” ILFS’s statement was quoted in a report by the PTI.

Professor Shahid Jameel, member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the ILSF, explained that the m-RNA vaccine development technology is crucial for the country to effectively react to future pandemics.

He asserted that the researchers will even try to develop methods to generate thermostable RNA vaccines that will be crucial for the ‘resource-poor tropical regions of the world.’