7 October 2021 - - US-based biotechnology company Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ: MRNA) has launched the Moderna Fellowship Program, the company said.

The goal of the program is to support the next generation of scientists and healthcare professionals as they innovate in the field of mRNA research towards improving patient care and population health.

Prospective fellows may be clinicians and scientists who are interested in advancing mRNA research and innovation and the program underpins Moderna's commitment to supporting independent research.

The fellowship program will select approximately 50 global fellows in the first year with a focus on infectious diseases.

Greg Poland, M.D., infections disease expert and director of Mayo Clinic's Vaccine Research Group, will serve as chair of the program.

The fellowship program will be overseen by an independent steering committee of international experts in science, medicine, and healthcare.

The committee expects to receive applications from institutions around the world who wish to appoint a fellow in either clinical medicine, scientific research or another healthcare related discipline.

In 10 years since its inception, Moderna has transformed from a science research-stage company advancing programs in the field of messenger RNA, to an enterprise with a diverse clinical portfolio of vaccines and therapeutics across six modalities, a broad intellectual property portfolio in areas including mRNA and lipid nanoparticle formulation, and an integrated manufacturing plant that allows for both clinical and commercial production at scale and at unprecedented speed.

Moderna maintains alliances with a range of domestic and overseas government and commercial collaborators, which has allowed for the pursuit of both groundbreaking science and rapid scaling of manufacturing.

Most recently, Moderna's capabilities have come together to allow the authorized use of one of the earliest and most effective vaccines against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Moderna's mRNA platform builds on continuous advances in basic and applied mRNA science, delivery technology and manufacturing, and has allowed the development of therapeutics and vaccines for infectious diseases, immuno-oncology, rare diseases, cardiovascular diseases and auto-immune diseases.

Moderna has been named a top biopharmaceutical employer by Science for the past six years.