NIH, GreenLight Biosciences to collaborate on COVID-19 vaccine development for new variants
BOSTON, July 29, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GreenLight Biosciences has announced a collaboration with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop COVID-19 vaccines that are more broadly protective against new variants and with longer-lasting effects.
“This is a tremendous opportunity for us to partner with a premier vaccine discovery team and use our mRNA platform to accelerate the development of coronavirus vaccines which are more broadly protective and durable than those currently available,” says Amin Khan, PhD, GreenLight’s Chief Science Officer, Human Health.
GreenLight—in collaboration with the Vaccine Research Center (VRC), part of NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases—will co-design and test mRNA vaccines against coronaviruses with the goal of developing vaccines that confer a more durable immune response than current vaccines. In addition, they will work together to develop systems that expedite new designs into clinical use.
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, continues to evolve and accumulate genomic mutations with the potential to negatively affect the efficacy of existing medical countermeasures. For the current COVID-19 pandemic and future coronavirus-related pandemics, the rapid development and deployment of vaccines active against a range of coronaviruses, including variants of SARS-CoV-2, will be vital for public health.
According to the NIH, cooperative research and development agreements, or , “provide an exciting opportunity for NIH investigators to join with their colleagues from industry and academia in the joint pursuit of common research goals. Government scientists serve the larger mission of NIH, to facilitate the development and commercialization of health-care pharmaceuticals and products. Companies also can leverage their own R&D efforts while collaborating in state-of-the-art NIH research.”
About GreenLight Biosciences
GreenLight Biosciences aims to address some of the world’s biggest problems by delivering on the full potential of RNA for human health and agriculture. Our RNA platform allows us to research, design, and manufacture for human, animal, and plant health. In human health, this includes messenger RNA vaccines and therapeutics. In agriculture, this includes RNA to protect honeybees and a range of crops. The company’s platform is protected by numerous patents. GreenLight’s human health product candidates are in the pre-clinical stage, and its product candidates for the agriculture market are in the early stages of development or regulatory review. GreenLight is a public benefit corporation that trades under the ticker GRNA on Nasdaq. For more information, visit
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Notes to editors
- GreenLight has been developing a Covid vaccine before this announcement. Further details can be found here:
- GreenLight is designing three messenger RNA products, including a vaccine for shingles with Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s biggest vaccine producer. SII also has an option to expand the relationship further for two additional vaccine or therapeutic targets.
- GreenLight’s Human Health Advisory Board includes Barney Graham, named one of the Heroes of the Year in 2021 by Time magazine for his role in developing the COVID-19 vaccine:
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at
