Scott attracts CBC funding for COVID-19 vaccine research

SQI faculty member Evan Scott is part of a multi-institutional team awarded $500,000 to investigate strategies to improve vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

The project is one of three COVID-19 Response Awards given by the Chicago Biomedical Consortium (CBC), which required the research teams to include at least one principal investigator from each CBC institution: Northwestern University, the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Scott will join Ying Samuel Hu of UIC and Melody Swartz and Jeffrey Hubbell of UChicago for the project “Novel Strategies for Enhancing Vaccine Efficacy Against SARS-CoV-2.”

The scientists plan to use the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus as the antigen to stimulate production of neutralizing antibodies, according to a CBC news release. They also will develop nanomaterials designed to facilitate the targeted delivery of the vaccine to specific cells that are key in the immune response.