Aparecida Maria
FONTES

PROJECT

Development of a mRNA-based vaccine against SARS-COV-2 encoding multiple epitopes and using Lipo Particle as innovative carrier

Recently, twomRNA-based vaccines have been crucial for ending the ongoingseverepandemic of COVID-19. However, these vaccines encode only the spikeglycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2 and as the spikegeneis a mutation hotspot, hence at risk of losingsome of theirefficacywhen SARS-CoV-2 variantsemerge. Additionally, thesecurrentmRNA vaccines utilizelipidnanoparticletechnology,howeverhybrid carrier systemsprovide more flexibility and greaterfunctionalitycompared to non-hybridsystems. Withthis in mind, the proposedproject has 3 main objectives: 1) formulating a mRNA-based vaccine thatprovides protection against the SARS-CoV-2 pathogeninduced in response to antigensfromthree structural proteins; 2) includesignificant modifications of the mRNA structure in the production of IVT-mRNA to improvemRNA translation efficiency and overcome the innateimmunogenicity and 3) use LipoParticle as delivery system whichallowthe use of low doses of mRNA and enhanceendosomal escape.

BIOGRAPHY

Aparecida Maria Fontes is Assistant Professor at Genetics Department of Ribeirão Preto School of Medicine of University of São Paulo. Dr. Fontes interest is genetherapy, epigenetics and mRNA vaccine.