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Advancing Science For A Healthier World

Celestial’s novel proprietary Lipid and Stellar mRNA vaccine and therapeutic technology platforms are truly disruptive platforms for the generation of safer, more effective and more durable mRNA vaccines and therapeutics as well as dual modal anti-virals/anti-inflammatories for a variety of indications.

Celestial’s technologies are based on pioneering research conducted in the laboratories of prominent scientists, Dr. George Church at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Dennis Voelker & Dr. Mari Nakamura of National Jewish Health and a world class team of international scientists who are experts in innate immunity, genetics, virology, infectious diseases, bioengineering, pulmonary surfactant lipids, chemistry and pharmacology.

Celestial Stellar mRNA Platform

Celestial’s Stellar mRNA platform is a promising technology licensed in from Harvard University for the development of next generation vaccines and therapeutics for the treatment and prevention of a variety of infectious diseases, rare diseases and cancers.

The work done to date in the lab of Dr. George Church at Harvard Medical School demonstrates that encoding short noncoding immunostimulatory RNA (isRNA) sequences within a longer mRNA molecule enhances innate immune responses to IVT mRNA in vitro, leading to increased interferon and cytokine expression and upregulation of antigen presentation.

IVT mRNA containing an isRNA sequence that specifically activates the pattern-recognition receptor RIG-I was found to induce higher levels of type-I interferon (IFN) expression and increase apoptosis when transfected into cancer cells.

The ability to encode both adjuvant and antigen in a single molecule represents a more streamlined and customizable framework IVT mRNA vaccine design.

Streamlined Vaccine Development Pipeline to Reduce “Needle-to-Needle” Time

Celestial Lipid Platform

Celestial’s lipid platform is based on pulmonary surfactant lipids that are present naturally on lung surfaces of humans and animals. These lipids play a critical role in the regulation of biophysical and immunological properties of the lung.

Celestial’s lead lipid molecule is an endogenous phospholipid, CT-02 that belongs to a novel class of dual modal antiviral/anti-inflammatory drugs and has shown very promising results against several respiratory viruses including Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), (H1N1)pdm09 infections and Rhinoviruses. Celestial is currently focusing on developing its lead antiviral drug candidate, CT-02 for the treatment of RSV infections as the first clinical indication.