CIVICs is a network of research centers that works together in a coordinated, multidisciplinary effort to develop more durable, broadly protective and longer-lasting influenza vaccines. The CIVICs program includes three Vaccine Centers, one Vaccine Manufacturing and Toxicology Core, two Clinical Cores, and one Statistical, Data Management, and Coordination Center (SDMCC).
Main Areas of Focus
The Vaccine Centers focus on designing novel vaccine candidates and delivery platforms with an emphasis on cross-protective vaccine strategies that could be used in healthy adults as well as populations at high risk for the most serious outcomes of influenza, such as children, older adults, and pregnant women. The Vaccine Centers also focus on new ways to study influenza viruses and the human immune response to influenza through computer modeling, animal models and human challenge trials.
The most promising candidate vaccines will advance to clinical trials conducted by the Clinical Cores. The Vaccine Manufacturing and Toxicology Core will work with the Vaccine Centers to develop and manufacture the vaccine candidates for clinical testing. Vaccine candidates will first be evaluated for safety and immunogenicity in small Phase 1 clinical trials conducted among healthy adult participants. Successful vaccine candidates may eventually be advanced to larger Phase 2 clinical trials in healthy adults, or in specific age groups or at-risk populations.
The CIVICs Statistical, Data Management, and Coordination Center (SDMCC) provides assistance in designing statistically sound clinical trials. The SDMCC also performs clinical data analyses, curates pre-clinical data generated by the Vaccine Centers to ensure that results are available across the CIVICs program and deposited in publicly accessible databases, and provides a public portal for communication to the scientific community and general public about CIVICs program goals and accomplishments.
Read more about this network: NIAIDCIVICs.org