Newly funded: Striving for a new COVID-19 vaccine

Social distancing can help deter some of COVID-19’s spread, but the development of a vaccine is the only surefire way to combat this devastating disease. A team of researchers led by Hinh Ly, MA, PhD, and Yuying Liang, MS, PhD, has received funding from the UMN COVID-19 Rapid Response Grant program to use their recently patented technology to develop one such vaccine. These scientists have already successfully used this technology to develop a new vaccine against human influenza virus. That vaccine showed 100% protection against lethal influenza infection in a mouse model. Now, they aim to determine whether and how well the new vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 can generate cellular immune responses in vaccinated mice. Funding for this project began on March 16, 2020 and extends through March 15, 2021.