Ignite Life Science Foundation (LSF) has announced its first grant award for 'pandemic preparedness' research to a team of researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (Bangalore) and the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (Faridabad).

The researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (Bengaluru) comprising Professor Raghavan Varadarajan, Dr Mrinmoy De and Dr Siddharth Jhunjhunwala and Dr Amit Awasthi at the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (Faridabad). The grant will be for three years and will fund research to develop the platform technologies for RNA vaccine development.

Commenting on the award, Professor Shahid Jameel (Member – Scientific Advisory Board, Ignite LSF) said – “mRNA vaccine development technology is vital for India to mount a rapid and effective response to future pandemics. Successful execution of this project will seed the creation of much-needed capabilities in mRNA vaccine development in India. The investigators will not only work on developing a vaccine against new variants of SARS-Cov2 but also attempt to develop methods for the generation of thermostable RNA vaccines, which would be critical for resource-poor tropical regions of the world. Professor Varadarajan is an experienced researcher and Ignite LSF is pleased to support this work.”

Professor K Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, said, “Professor Varadarajan’s well-known excellence as one of our best scientists matches his zeal and ability to translate his research and talent to vaccines and therapy. Congratulations to him on receiving this research award from Ignite Life Science Foundation. As with his other efforts, I am sure that this one on developing mRNA vaccines will also meet with success. Congratulations too, to the Ignite LifeScience Foundation for initiating such awards that recognise excellence.”