Global health R&D at work in Missouri
Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine are working to develop a pan-coronavirus vaccine that protects against multiple coronaviruses. The research team is focused on the subgroup of coronaviruses, called betacoronviruses, to which SARS, MERS, and COVID-19 belong. Their goal is to produce a vaccine capable of reducing sickness and death in the event of an outbreak of a known or unknown betacoronavirus—slowing the spread of the disease and buying scientists more time to develop a vaccine targeted to the specific virus. The same research team also helped develop a nasal-administered COVID-19 vaccine that is now approved in India. The vaccine was licensed to a US-based biotech with the intent to advance its potential approval in the United States.