Pre-clinical Vaccine and Antibody Development for Coronavirus Disease

National Institute Of Allergy And Infectious Diseases

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

The emergence and global spread of SARS-CoV-2 stimulated significant research into coronavirus biology and the development of countermeasures, including vaccines and monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). Multiple vaccines were developed and deployed during the pandemic to prevent severe disease. A significant challenge of developing vaccines for respiratory viruses, including influenza and coronaviruses, is eliciting a protective immune response in the respiratory tract sufficient to block both virus acquisition and the development of severe disease. Immunity at mucosal surfaces has the potential to block transmission and more effectively blunt future outbreaks. Desirable vaccines must also elicit a protective and durable response of sufficient breadth to protect against antigenically diverse viral strains that exist in natural reservoirs or arise during epidemic spread. The goal of this research is to make fundamental insights into how antigen structure and delivery modalities impact the magnitude, quality, and durability of immune responses to coronaviruses at peripheral and mucosal sites. Current efforts focus on evaluating nanoparticles displaying coronavirus antigens as platform technologies with the potential to enable vaccine development efforts for coronavirus and other emerging respiratory viruses.