The Duke CIVICs Vaccine Center (DCVC) uses the group’s record of success in vaccine design and the expertise of its collaborative network to improve influenza vaccine candidates and platforms with innovative technologies. Using state of the art approaches, DCVC investigators create new immunogen designs, formulate novel vaccine candidates, and perform testing in pre-clinical models to assess immunogenicity and protection against infectious challenge.

The DCVC continually refines targets by testing the same viral antigens across different platforms and uses these results to improve the next round of vaccine designs. The DCVC is using novel delivery systems and approaches such as lipid nanoparticles containing nucleoside-modified mRNA, dual-HA expressing virions presenting multiple epitopes for antibody targeting, and structure-based modifications of influenza glycoproteins to target immunity to conserved regions of the virus. Promising vaccine candidates will advance into pre-clinical and clinical testing to assess how well they induce robust immune responses and protect against influenza in humans.