PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — After the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc, researchers in Pittsburgh are doing all they can to prevent another devastating pandemic from happening again.
Most of us would like to forget about the COVID-19 pandemic, but for those studying the dangerous virus at the University of Pittsburgh’s Vaccine Research Center, it’s motivation.
“People like us at the Vaccine Research Center have to remember that this happened and prepare for the next one,” said Paul Duprex, director of the Vaccine Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh.
Duplex is excited that the center will be joining a new network at the National Institutes of Health called ReVAMPP, the Vaccine and Monoclonal Antibody Research and Development Network for Pandemic Preparedness, which aims to strengthen pandemic preparedness.
He said the award will be worth millions of dollars over the next three to five years to develop a plan for a rapid response to the virus threat.
Experts from the University of Pittsburgh will study prototype viruses from four troublesome virus families, such as the family that includes mumps.
“If a virus emerges that is very similar to mumps but is transmitted in the same way as mumps, and we don’t have natural immunity to it because the current mumps vaccines don’t protect against it, we can use the knowledge we’ve identified about mumps to rapidly develop a new vaccine,” Duprex said.
Simply put, they are using an example to prepare for something that may occur in the future.
“We can take all that knowledge and apply it to this new virus that we’ve never seen before,” he said.
Dupleix said the program would benefit greatly from the CVR’s Regional Biocontainment Laboratory, whose researchers have worked on coronaviruses, SARS and MERS.
“We’re using all the knowledge and expertise we’ve gained to look to the future, not look back,” he said.
He said the “prototype pathogen” model is similar to the model that accelerated vaccine development to fight the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic.
The NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases plans to allocate $100 million a year to the ReVAMPP program, with millions of dollars in awards to be paid out to research groups in a network across the US.
Duplex is proud that University of Pittsburgh researchers are part of this new network: They’re suiting up in full protective gear, ready to develop potential life-saving blueprints.
“It’s very exciting, with seven families, a lot of scientists, a lot of virologists, a lot of vaccinologists and a lot of preparation going on in preparation for the relocation. It’s just wonderful that we can be a part of it,” Dupleix said.
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