Duke CIVIC Vaccine Center (DCVC). DCVC

The Duke CIVIC Vaccine Center (DCVC), part of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Collaborative Influenza Vaccine Innovation Centers (CIVICs) program, aims to uses its record of success in vaccine design and the expertise of its collaborative network to improve influenza vaccine candidates and platforms with innovative technologies. Using state of the art approaches, including antibody sequence analysis, DCVC investigators inform immunogen design, formulate novel vaccine candidates, and perform testing in pre-clinical models to assess immunogenicity and protection against infectious challenge. The DCVC continually refines targets by testing the same viral antigens across different platforms. These novel delivery systems include lipid nanoparticles containing nucleoside-modified mRNA, dual-HA expressing virions presenting multiple epitopes for antibody targeting, and structure-based modifications of influenza glycoproteins to target immunity to conserved regions of the virus. The best vaccine candidates advance into pre-clinical and clinical testing to assess how well they induce robust immune responses and protect against influenza in humans. This contract supports the design and evaluation of innovative influenza vaccine candidates and delivery platforms that aim to achieve durable, robust and broadly protective immunity against multiple strains of influenza virus. Activities may include immunologic analyses to inform vaccine design and identify surrogates/correlates of protection; in vitro and in vivo immunogenicity and efficacy testing; assay and reagent development; and clinical studies and trials. Additional studies are being conducted to support the design and evaluation of innovative candidate products and delivery platforms that aim to achieve durable, robust and broadly protective immunity against viruses.