On Mar. 18, 2020, Immunology researchers at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine announced a collaboration with North Carolina-based Heat Biologics to develop a vaccine for the novel coronavirus COVID-19.

Heat Biologics’ vaccine platform is based on the work of the late Eckhard Podack, M.D., Ph.D., former chair of the Miller School’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology. In the early 2000s, Dr. Podack studied the heat shock protein gp96 as a potential treatment for non-small cell lung cancer, and co-founded Heat Biologics in 2008.

Since then, the gp96 protein has undergone rigorous testing in National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Department of Defense-funded laboratory trials as a vaccine against HIV, malaria and other infectious diseases, and has been tested on more than 300 patients in Heat-funded oncology trials.

Under the terms of the research collaboration, UM will develop and test one or more vaccine constructs utilizing the gp-96 vaccine backbone to express antigens associated with COVID-19.

The gp96-based approach to vaccine development avoids potential issues associated with attenuated live viral vaccines, according to Dr. Strbo, who has spent many years advancing the gp96 platform as a vaccine against HIV, malaria, Zika and other infectious diseases.