Administrative Core

Project Summary The goal of this Program is to develop a next-generation, universal coronavirus synthetic nucleic acid vaccine employing advancements in nucleic acid delivery of nanoparticles that will provide broad protection against multiple seasonal and emerging CoV. There are seven CoV known to infect people, 4 human (HCoV-NL63, - 229E, -OC43, -HKU1) and 3 zoonotic that have crossed into humans in the past 20 years (SARS-CoV-1, SARS- CoV-2, and MERS-CoV). Zoonotic CoV are introduced by cross-transmission events from animals and the most concerning due to lack of immunity in people. Spread of future related viruses is of concern and new vaccine strategies are urgently needed that will provide broad protection in people against multiple coronaviruses. This program brings together the expertise of teams from The Wistar Institute (Drs. Weiner, Kulp, and Patel), The University of Pennsylvania (Dr. Allman), and Indiana University (Dr. Pallesen). Together, the team has significant experience in virology, immunology, protein engineering, and molecular and cellular biochemistry. The Program is organized into 2 Research Projects, overseen by the Administrative Core (AC). Dr. Ami Patel (The Wistar Institute) will serve as director for the AC. The goal of the Administrative core (AC), led by Dr. Patel as part of a three-member leadership team consisting of Dr. Kulp, Weiner and Patel, will provide overall governance and oversight to ensure the Program goals are met. These goals will be achieved through active program management including administrative and financial support, project monitoring and reporting, research compliance oversight, team communication, resource management, conflict resolution, and intellectual property management. In these functions, the AC will be responsible for overall program performance, personnel, sample distribution, and animal shipping coordination. The AC will arrange regular team calls for open data discussion and timeline review and organize yearly review meetings. The AC will arrange calls between the Program Direction, Project Leads and the NIH Program Office and provide yearly reports on progress for program feedback as well as facilitate publication of findings and scientific meeting attendance.