GE Gets $41M to Accelerate Vaccine Manufacturing, Distribution

GE Research and a multi-disciplinary team are receiving up to $41 million over the next five years to boost nucleic acid-based vaccine manufacturing and distribution. 

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) awarded the grant to team, which includes the Broad Institute, DNA Script, MEDInstill, Molecular Assemblies, and the University of Washington. The grant is part of DARPA’s Nucleic Acids On-Demand Worldwide (NOW), which aims to establish a rapid, mobile medical manufacturing platform to produce, formulate, and package DNA or RNA-based vaccines and therapeutics. 

The vaccines and other treatments are meant for use in stabilization and humanitarian operations. This will allow for researchers to better prepare for forces against bio-threat attacks and emerging infectious disease. 

The scalable production process could significantly increase the speed at which new vaccines, such as the recently FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccines, could be allocated to individuals in need.

Specifically, the platform will enable the deployment of vaccines and therapeutics in just days versus weeks.

Additionally, GE’s project called RUN FAST (Rapid Universal Nucleic Acids using Fieldable Automated Synthesis Technology) will leverage the expertise of the GE Research team to build automated systems in the biological production of medicines and therapies.

The project will also include a synthetic method for making DNA and RNA to assemble a complete mobile medical manufacturing platform. Overall, the project could be a “gamechanger,” according to John R. Nelson, PhD, a member of the GE research team. 

“The world really needs this kind of advance to be prepared for unexpected challenges like what we have seen recently with COVID-19. Having the ability to produce small batches of ready-to-use vaccines in under 3 days at the site of need would enable widespread deployment of doses at an unprecedented speed,” Nelson stated.

GE’s research team comprises Nelson and his colleagues, Weston Griffin, PhD, Erik Kvam, PhD, and Brian Davis, PhD. The team represents a multi-disciplinary group with expertise in chemistry, molecular biology, cell biology, fluidic handling, engineering, automation, and quality control, GE said. 

Bringing together the wide range of expertise in different fields can simplify the overall production of DNA therapies.

Along with their project partners, the GE team brings all of the elements required to design this mobile manufacturing platform.

Until recently, steps required to produce a DNA or RNA- based vaccine were manual and required the use of bacterial cultures for bio-production of the DNA used, GE said.  

The use of bacterial cells then requires the use of multiple purification steps to eliminate impurities. 

DARPA recognized the broad capabilities of GE’s research team to incorporate synthetic DNA production and to automate and integrate all of the steps into a streamlined workflow to create one portable production system.

The GE research team is in the final stages of a $4.7 million project with the Department of Defense’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) to develop DNA vaccine technology that would enable the agency and medical community to more rapidly respond to new or emerging biothreats. 

The team’s research and technology is focused on the speed of scaling the manufacture of a specific vaccine. GE’s recent project with DARPA represents a crucial opportunity to boost needed advancement to ready the mobile vaccine production platform.

"Our team has experience and expertise using enzymes to make DNA synthetically instead of purifying it from living cells. We believe that this reaction can be scaled easily in size and because it doesn't use living cells that need to be fed and cared for and cleaned up after, can be automated,” Nelson concluded.