CIVICs is a network of research centers that will work together in a coordinated, multidisciplinary effort to develop more durable, broadly protective and longer-lasting influenza vaccines. The CIVICs program will include three Vaccine Centers, one Vaccine Manufacturing and Toxicology Core, two Clinical Cores, and one Statistical, Data Management, and Coordination Center (SDMCC).
Read more about this network: NIAIDCIVICs.org
The Vaccine Centers will 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 will 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 Statisitical, Data Management, and Coordination Center (SDMCC) will provide assistance in designing statistically sound preclinical experiments and clinical trials. The SDMCC will also perform data analyses, make results available across the CIVICs program, ensure that CIVICs data is available in publicly accessible databases, and provide a public portal for communication to the scientific community and general public about CIVICs program goals and accomplishments.
Primary contract awardees for the CIVICS Vaccine Centers, Vaccine Manufacturing & Toxicology Core, Clinical Core, and Statistical, Data Management, and Coordination Center.
The Immune Mechanisms of Protection Against Mycobacterium tuberculosis Centers (IMPAc-TB) program is an initiative established by NIAID in 2019 to elucidate the immune responses needed to protect against infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). The program will lead to a better understanding of tuberculosis (TB) immunology, which is critical to guide the design and development of new and improved TB vaccines, and it aligns with the goals of the NIAID Strategic Plan for Tuberculosis Research.
The IMPAc-TB program aims to develop a comprehensive understanding of the immune responses required to prevent initial infection with Mtb, establishment of latent infection, and transition to active TB disease. To accomplish these objectives, multidisciplinary research teams will conduct immunological analyses of tissue-specific and systemic responses in small animals, non-human primates (NHPs), and humans to identify the key immune responses needed for protection against Mtb; identify immunologic targets that can be used to improve TB vaccine strategies; determine the impact of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) and nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) infections on relevant immune responses to Mtb infection or TB vaccines; and identify how bacterial immune evasion mechanisms subvert immune responses to Mtb.
Principal investigators: Sarah Fortune, M.D. (Harvard); Henry Boom, M.D. (Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland); JoAnne Flynn, Ph.D. (University of Pittsburgh)
Center objective: The goal of this Center is to identify factors that protect people from Mtb infection and to translate these findings into improved vaccine strategies. A multidisciplinary research team will assess samples from NHPs and human cohorts, in whom infection is suppressed, to learn how their immune responses protect them from Mtb infection. Investigators will use computational modeling to predict the likely causes of suppressed infections, which will be tested in cellular and small animal models. Studies will evaluate the effect of intravenous (IV) bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccination in rhesus macaques in response to Mtb challenge and the immune mechanisms responsible for controlling natural mycobacterial infection in cynomolgus macaques. Studies also will examine the effect of SIV infection on IV BCG vaccination using computational modeling and a systems biology approach. In collaboration with the Imperial College of London, the research team will compare the immune correlates of protection observed in the NHP studies with human responses. Human studies conducted by the Center also will also focus on exposed individuals that resist infection or that develop a transient infection response.
Principal investigator: Rhea Coler, Ph.D.
Center objective: This Center will identify the complex immune responses required to prevent Mtb infection or active TB disease by comparing and examining protective immune responses induced by natural mycobacterial infection or vaccines. The research team will evaluate recombinant protein vaccines combined with adjuvants to identify and validate common protective correlates of immunity in well-established animal models for TB and human challenge clinical studies where participants are deliberately exposed to BCG under carefully controlled conditions. The investigational vaccines to be evaluated are ID93 and M72 formulated with GLA-SE and other adjuvants developed by IDRI and contractors supported by NIAID’s Division of Allergy, Immunology, and Transplantation (DAIT). The studies also will address how immunity from previous BCG vaccination and natural nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) infection affects the investigational vaccines’ effectiveness and ability to generate an immune response across species. The studies will provide crucial insights into the development of candidate vaccines that generate robust levels of durable, protective immunity against TB.
Principal investigator: Kevin Urdahl, M.D., Ph.D.
Center objective: The goal of this Center is to inform the design of an effective TB vaccine by identifying the immune responses capable of controlling and potentially eradicating Mtb. The research team will identify and examine protective pathways in natural and vaccine-induced immunity by analyzing tissue-specific and systemic immunity in mice, NHPs, and humans. Investigators will examine immune correlates at three stages: the pre-infection immune stage; the early events after pulmonary infection; and the formation of granulomas (compact, organized structures of immune cells) during chronic infection. These studies will identify the immune responses required to protect the host from initial infection, establish latent infection, and prevent progression to active TB disease.
Dr. Que Dang - Division of AIDS (DAIDS)
Dr. Nancy Vázquez, Division of Allergy, Immunology, and Transplantation (DAIT)
Dr. Katrin Eichelberg, Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (DMID)
Dang Q et al. Immune mechanisms of protection against Mycobacterium tuberculosis-centers. 2024 Oct 8:15:1429250. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1429250. eCollection 2024.
The NIAID-funded Bioinformatics Resource Centers provide data-driven, production-level, sustainable computational platforms to enable sharing and access to data, portable computational tools, and standards that support interoperability for the infectious diseases research community.
NIAID supports and conducts research to identify new vaccine candidates to prevent a variety of infectious diseases, including those for which no vaccines currently exist. NIAID-supported research also aims to improve the safety and efficacy of existing vaccines. Explore the links below to learn more about NIAID’s efforts to design, develop and evaluate new and improved vaccines to protect against specific infectious diseases.
NIAID-funded researchers at ATCC and Tufts University have developed SOPs for creating continuous in vitro culture systems for the intestinal parasite Cryptosporidium. Drug development has been hampered by limitations of methods to propagate the organism in vitro. The following SOPs describe procedures to establish and maintain Cryptosporidium hominis and Cryptosporidium parvum cultures.
Fungi include a wide range of organisms, such as mushrooms, molds, and yeast, that are common outdoors in water, soil and air; indoors on surfaces; and on our skin and inside our bodies. Mold can worsen breathing problems in people with allergies or asthma, while various types of fungi can infect nails and cause skin rashes.
Some fungal infections are more common in people with weakened immune systems or hospitalized individuals, while other fungal infections can infect anyone, including otherwise healthy people. There are only four classes of antifungal drugs, and fungal strains resistant to these drugs are emerging. Currently, there are no approved vaccines to prevent fungal infections.
NIAID conducts and supports basic research to understand how fungal pathogens cause disease and how the immune system responds to infection. NIAID is also conducting and supporting the science to find new ways to diagnose, treat and prevent fungal infections.
To learn about risk factors for fungal infections and current prevention and treatment strategies visit the MedlinePlus fungal diseases site.
Researchers are exploring how fungal susceptibility and infection impact the function of immune cells in clinical trials supported by NIAID.
The Trans-NIH Microbiome Working Group (TMWG) was established in 2012 by Dr. Lita Proctor (NHGRI) to provide a forum for coordinating NIH extramural research activities related to the human microbiome. TMWG membership is open to all extramural program staff from NIH institutes and centers (ICs) with an interest in the human microbiome. The TMWG meets monthly.
Below is a list of extramural program staff who have agreed to serve as the primary point of contact for their Institute for microbiome research related inquiries. They will address general questions and, if needed, will direct your inquiries to the appropriate program director in their Institute
| ICO | Program Staff |
|---|---|
| NIAID | Ryan Ranallo (Co-chair) |
| NCI | Phil Daschner (Co-chair) |
| NCCIH | Hye Sook Kim |
| NEI | Charles Wright |
| NHGRI | Lisa Chadwick |
| NCATS | Pablo Cure |
| NHLBI | Emmanuel Mongodin |
| NIA | Rebecca Fuldner |
| NIAAA | Joe Wang |
| NIAMS | Ricardo R. Cibotti |
| NICHD | Ashley Vargas |
| NIDA | Jag H. Khalsa |
| NIDCR | Tamara McNealy |
| NIDDK | Bob Karp |
| NIEHS | Anika Dzierlenga |
| NIGMS | Andrea Keane-Myers |
| NIMH | Nancy Desmond |
| NIMHD | Michael Sayre |
| ODS | Cindy Davis |