Woodlands Bio-Tech Firm Working on Zika Vaccine

THE WOODLANDS, TX — The Zika virus may have people all over the country on edge, but scientists in The Woodlands are already working to find a way to defeat the bug.

VGXI, a bio-tech firm in The Woodlands, is working to create a vaccine for the mosquito-borne disease. Instead of a traditional vaccine, which uses a sample of a the virus to create immunity, VGXI used DNA plasmids to manufacture a vaccine.

The vaccine uses plasmids, small molecules in cells that replicate independently, to help the body find and hunt down the virus. When introduced into a human body, the vaccine activates the immune response against Zika and prevents the virus from replicating.

VGXI, a subsidiary of GeneOne Life Science, manufactured the vaccine for an ongoing FDA clinical trial that is being carried out by the firm's parent company, which is sponsoring the trial.

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