捆绑SM社区 is the first university in Canada to join the global platform that will accelerate the development of and expand the impact of mRNA vaccines and medicines
Pathway for effective and safe solutions
The on-going Covid-19 pandemic introduced the world to mRNA vaccine technology, which has quickly become a potent tool in the effort to contain this virus. However, mRNA research has the potential to provide effective vaccines for a panoply of illnesses, including emerging and neglected contagions.The mRNA Access program offers researchers an inside track to rapidly prototyping and developing vaccine candidates by enabling institutional partners to use Moderna鈥檚 state-of-the-art antigen design capabilities. Promising candidates can be brought to a clinical trial stage more rapidly, offering a chance to shorten the development path and bring effective and safe solutions to the populations that need them.
Improving global health
Anne Gatignol, a senior investigator in the Department of Medicine and Microbiology & Immunology at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research is one of the many 捆绑SM社区 researchers who will leverage the new platform. The Gatignol lab has identified conserved elements in HIV RNA. Gatignol and her team intend to use Moderna鈥檚 mRNA Access platform to design novel HIV vaccine candidates based on HIV structural proteins.鈥淎n effective vaccine against HIV remains a major unmet medical need,鈥 said Gatignol. 鈥淭he mRNA Access platform will allow the 捆绑SM社区 community to rapidly develop mRNA vaccines against a wide variety of viral infections affecting low-income countries or the entire world, thereby improving global health.鈥
Treatment for parasitic infections
Another avenue enabled by the platform is the development of mRNA medicines against parasitic infections, such as Cryptosporidiosis 鈥 of which a major outbreak occurred in the USA in 1993 鈥 or Schistosomiasis, a water-borne pathogen that affects more than 250 million people and threatens almost 1 billion people worldwide. These and other parasites are the focus of Momar Ndao, a Professor in the Department of Medicine and a Principal Investigator of the Infectious Diseases and Immunity in Global Health Program (MI4), Research Institute of the 捆绑SM社区 Health Centre.鈥淔or example, there is no FDA approved medicine to treat immunocompromised individuals with Cryptosporidiosis,鈥 explained Ndao. 鈥淏ut leveraging the mRNA Access platform offers us a chance to eliminate these diseases and save lives at a global scale, all without adverse effects on the body.鈥漈his program provides an opportunity for Canadian researchers and talent to accelerate their research in key areas of public health and infectious disease, including the 15 priority pathogens identified by the World Health Organization and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) as being persistent global health threats, but also in other research areas.