Gritstone bio is a clinical-stage American biotechnology company which develops cancer and infectious disease immunotherapies and vaccines. It was founded in August 2015 as Gritstone Oncology, Inc., and is based in

Emeryville, California Emeryville is a city located in northwest Alameda County, California, in the United States. It lies in a corridor between the cities of Berkeley and Oakland, with a border on the shore of San Francisco Bay. The resident population was 12,905 as o ...

. In September 2021 it raised $55.0 million from the sale of 5,000,000 shares. It started a Phase 1 trial of its self-amplifying

mRNA In molecular biology, messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) is a single-stranded molecule of RNA that corresponds to the genetic sequence of a gene, and is read by a ribosome in the process of Protein biosynthesis, synthesizing a protein. mRNA is ...

second generation

SARS-CoV-2 Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), the respiratory illness responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had a ...

vaccine, GRT-R910, in the NIHCR Manchester Clinical Research Facility at

Manchester Royal Infirmary Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI) is a large NHS teaching hospital in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester, England. Founded by Charles White in 1752 as part of the voluntary hospital movement of the 18th century, it is now a major regional and nati ...

, in September 2021. This is to explore the ability of GRT-R910 to boost and expand the immunogenicity of

AstraZeneca AstraZeneca plc () is a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with its headquarters at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus in Cambridge, England. It has a portfolio of products for major diseases in areas includin ...

's first-generation

COVID-19 vaccine A COVID19 vaccine is a vaccine intended to provide acquired immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 ( COVID19). Prior to the COVID19 pandemic, an e ...

AZD1222 (Vaxzevria) in healthy adults of more than 60 years. It uses lipid nanoparticles to deliver a broad set of antigens against SARS-CoV-2 that includes both stabilized spike protein and highly conserved viral protein regions containing T cell epitopes. Prof. Andrew Ustianowski is the study’s chief investigator. On 10 November 2021, Gritstone announced positive preclinical data of its second-generation self-amplifying mRNA (SAM) vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 in non-human primate models. It is involved in a Phase 1/2 study, in collaboration with

Bristol Myers Squibb The Bristol Myers Squibb Company (BMS) is an American multinational pharmaceutical company. Headquartered in New York City, BMS is one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies and consistently ranks on the ''Fortune'' 500 list of the lar ...

, in 26 patients with metastatic solid tumors.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://gritstonebio.com/about/ Biotechnology companies of the United States Companies based in California COVID-19 vaccine producers