About Us

SamRNA Co., Ltd.

The Company

Our goal is to facilitate and support the development of self-amplifying mRNA (samRNA) technologies. SamRNA is an artificially designed mRNA, of which the core mRNA sequence is flank with at least one RNA-dependent-RNA-polymerase (RdRp)-binding site in its 5’-end and 3’-end, respectively. The incorporated RdRp-binding sites can be recognized by coronaviral (e.g. COVID-19) and/or HCV replicase/RdRp enzymes, so as to activate RdRp-mediated amplification of the designed samRNA in vitro, ex vivo as well as in vivo. By simultaneous delivery of both samRNA and RdRp mRNA into targeted cells, samRNA can be used as an effective RNA/mRNA medicine or vaccine to reduce administration dose, prevent potential side-effects, and increase desired drug effects in the treated cells.

The People

Chief Scientific Consultant

Dr. Shi-Lung Lin

Dr. Shi-Lung Lin earned his Ph.D degree from the Department of Pathology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California (USC). After that, he not only continued to serve as an Assistant Professor at USC for over six years but also assisted Professor Dr. Shao-Yao Ying to complete an NIH project (NIH/NCI AR-42177) for preparing, screening and comparing single-cell mRNA/cDNA library profiles of various isolated cancer cells. As a result, his team is the first research group who designed and developed a novel PCR-IVT method for generating full-length mRNAs in year 1999. Also, he had developed another novel Replicase Cycling Reaction (RCR) method to amplify RNA virus genomes in year 2000 (WO 2002/092774). Following his recent identification of SARS-CoV-2 RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp)-binding sites, he had further re-designed the RCR methodology to amplify RdRp-binding site-incorporated self-amplifying mRNAs (samRNA) in vitro. Since this novel samRNA platform is not based on any replicon backbone and does not contain any large viral genome part, his findings lead to a much safer and efficient samRNA technology for developing future RNA/mRNA vaccines as well as medicines. As described in the Fuller's and Berglund's review article (NEJM 382: 2469-2471, 2020), his current samRNA design is equivalent to the fifth generation (type E) of optimized samRNA platforms.

Business Manager

Mr. Jeffrey Hung

Mr. Jeffrey Hung has over 25 years' work experiences in banking and fast-moving-consumer-goods industries including Citibank, American Express, and Nestle. He owns dual Engineering and Law degrees and is active in EMBA alumni community of National Taiwan University. He also supports several non-for-profit initiatives, like Music Around Taiwan, NTU EMBA String Orchestra and Experimental Education, to make a better world.