ABC News was invited inside the lab at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), which is now open 24 hours a day, seven days a week in pursuit of a coronavirus vaccine. The lab's vaccine candidates are already in animal testing and WRAIR hopes to begin human clinical trials in late summer
Researchers around the world are working at a feverish pace to develop a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, as the number of cases worldwide surpasses three million.
"Amazingly, in that growing landscape of vaccines, our approach is unique," said Dr. Kayvon Modjarrad, the director for emerging infectious diseases at WRAIR."It presents that part of the virus -- the spike protein that's the hook that gets attached to your lung cells -- a lot of vaccines just present one of those to the immune system. Our approach presents them multiple times."Modjarrad is leading the Army's effort to develop a coronavirus vaccine.
"Zika was part of a family of viruses that we have vaccines for," Modjarrad said."The world does not have any coronavirus vaccine license. It's not just a vaccine for COVID-19 that doesn't exist, it's a vaccine for any coronavirus that doesn't exist." "There are certainly monoclonal antibodies that are showing the right type of behavior in the lab," said Dr. Gordon Joyce, head of structural biology at WRAIR.
Founded in 1893, WRAIR has infectious disease work in its DNA. The institute is named after Walter Reed, an Army major who contributed leading research on the spread of typhoid and yellow fever in the late 1800s. The institute is now physically separated from the well-known Walter Reed National Medical Center in nearby Bethesda, Maryland.
There are currently more than 100 COVID-19 vaccine candidates worldwide, according to the World Health Organization, with seven already in human testing.
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