NIH launches clinical trial of Nipah mRNA virus vaccine
image: Color transmission electron micrograph of mature extracellular Nipah Virus particles (red) near the periphery of infected VERO cells (green). see again Credit: NIAID The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has launched an early-stage clinical trial evaluating the vaccine being studied to prevent Nipah virus infection. The experimental vaccine was manufactured by Moderna, Inc., (Cambridge, Massachusetts) and developed in collaboration with the NIAID Vaccine Research Center. It is based on platform messenger RNA (mRNA)—the technology used in several approved COVID-19 vaccines. NIAID is sponsoring the Phase 1 clinical study, which is being conducted at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Nipah virus infection is a zoonotic disease, meaning that it is transmitted between animals and humans. Fruit bats are the natural hosts of this virus. The f