Viral ambitions

Meissa Vaccines Inc. is translating studies from an Emory University team into a pair of vaccine platforms to protect specific at-risk subpopulations from infections by two otherwise innocuous viruses, RSV and the common cold. The question is whether, by using synthetic biology, Meissa can produce better vaccines than standard recombinant or attenuation approaches have been able to deliver.

The start-up, formed in 2014, is housed in the Johnson & Johnson Innovation unit’s South San Francisco JLABS site. Now, it’s seeking funding to take its respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and human rhinovirus (HRV) programs through Phase I. ...