Genetic stability of live-attenuated candidate vaccine RVax-1 for Rift Valley fever

Rift Valley fever (RVF) is a mosquito-borne zoonosis endemic to Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, which causes large outbreaks involving humans and ruminants. Rationally designed RVax-1 vaccine candidate displays protective epitopes fully identical to previously characterized MP-12 vaccine. Additionally, all genome segments of RVax-1 contribute to attenuation phenotype, which can prevent the formation of pathogenic reassortant strains. This project aims to characterize genetic stability of RVax-1 or parental rMP-12 during passages in Vero cells.