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NIH awards seven research grants for vaccine adjuvants
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a division of the NIH, has awarded seven research grants to separate institutions to explore and develop new adjuvants to enhance the effectiveness of existing and future vaccines.
“The goal of this research is to identify novel adjuvant candidates that safely and selectively boost vaccine-induced immune responses,” Anthony S. Fauci, MD, NIAID director, said in a press release. “Such adjuvants could be used to improve current vaccines, extend the vaccine supply or enhance vaccine efficacy in people with immature or weakened immune systems, such as infants and the elderly.”
Anthony S. Fauci
The institutions, and the principal investigators, awarded grants totaling as much as $70 million across 5 years are:
- University of California, San Diego; Dennis Carson, MD
- Boston Children’s Hospital; Ofer Levy, MD, PhD
- Vaxine PTY, Australia; Nikolai Petrovsky, PhD
- Corixa Corp. (now GlaxoSmithKline); Jay Evans, PhD
- Duke University; Herman Staats, PhD
- Oregon Health & Science University; Jay Nelson, PhD
- University of Kansas; Sunil David, MD, PhD
The research will consist of several stages. In the first, researchers will work toward identifying appropriate molecules using computer-based screening. In the second stage, the ways that the molecules may behave as adjuvants will be studied. Those discoveries will be used to determine what molecular changes might improve immune responses without causing unwanted side effects before animal studies are conducted.
The awards will be overseen by Daniel Rotrosen, MD, director of NIAID’s division of allergy, immunology and transplantation.
“We expect that this research will expand the adjuvant pipeline and contribute to the development of new and improved vaccines against infectious diseases,” Rotrosen said in the release. “With this new round of awards, we have expanded the research scope of our program to compounds that indirectly and directly stimulate adaptive immunity.”