UHCL : UHCL Alum Uses Biotech Skills To Help Create COVID Vaccine At Moderna

Press release from University of Houston-Clear Lake:

March 11, 2022

Hardik Jani always knew he wanted to work in public health and help make lifesaving
medicines. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, time became of
the essence to provide a vaccine against the virus. So, after he graduated from University
of Houston-Clear Lake in 2012 with his Master of Science in Biotechnology, he began a career that ultimately led him to Moderna, one of the world's largest
biotechnology companies, to use his skills to help respond to this global health emergency.

"I came to UH-Clear Lake directly from India, where I had already received a master's
degree," Jani said. "I was interested in molecular biology, and I wanted to further
increase my hands-on work experience. UHCL offered great lab-related courses and that's
what I was looking for."

Jani said he went to work for a startup company called Base Pair Biotechnologies in
Houston after graduation, where he gained experience in aptamer selection and Next
Generation Sequencing. "I joined the Genomic and RNA Profiling Lab at Baylor College
of Medicine in 2015, where I lead the NGS lab and was able to expand my expertise
in Next Generation Sequencing and sample quality control," he said. "All this experience
became very important in landing me the job at Moderna and contribute to the SARS-Cov-2
vaccine program."

In 2017, he began working at Moderna as a senior research associate. His job, at first,
was to make aptamers to support the mRNA platform technologies.

"The main focus of aptamer discovery was to evaluate the ability of aptamers to be
utilized for mRNA therapeutics," he said. "After two years, I moved to my current
position on the Biological Science Team as a principal research associate to provide
automation solutions for high priority manual bioanalytical assays performed across
Moderna's research platform and therapeutic areas."

His contributions directly resulted in gaining critical data about the vaccines in
preclinical research phase, which is vital for evaluating the drug performance and
understanding the underlying science.

"When COVID happened, we found that we had a lot of studies that were taking too much
time to complete," he said. "To cope with the numerous high-demand assays and studies,
we had to expand into the automation and digitalization area. My job was to find automated
solutions for improving assay turnaround time, directly accommodating the increase
in demand, while continuing to achieve the highest data quality."

He added that every month there was a new virus strain and new mutations. "We tested
as many as possible, requiring me to get results as soon as possible," he said.

Ultimately, Moderna was able to deliver a successful vaccine to the public. "I'm very
happy I had something to do with that," he said. "During this time, I was also able
to publish some research papers. I was an integral part of the studies that helped
support finalizing the vaccine design."

He said he could foresee staying at Moderna for a long time to come, continuing to
do the work that impacts public health. "Working at Moderna taught me the importance
of human life," he said. "So many people are going through so much. There are so many
diseases to cure. Being part of the process is important to me, especially after COVID."

Jani continues his work on several other vaccine programs, including for the cytomegalovirus,
SARS-Cov-2 and associated variants, flu and herpes simplex virus.

He added that the preparation he got at UHCL, particularly the connections he made
and the relationships he had with professors combined to equip him for the work he
is now doing.

"I feel that whatever I have achieved in my life, it goes back to my education and
all my mentors" he said. "I'm very thankful, and whatever I am, I owe it to the university.
Even now, if I have questions about my life or career, I ask my former professors
and they always answer. That's the kind of relationship I have with them."

For more information about UHCL's Biotechnology program, go online.

This press release was produced by University of Houston-Clear Lake. The views expressed here are the author’s own.