On Apr. 6, 2020, Emory’s Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit (VTEU) announced its participation in a clinical trial testing a vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19, the first such vaccine to be tested in the U.S. The vaccine is called mRNA-1273 and was developed by NIAID and Moderna.

The goals of the Phase I study, which began Mar. 16 at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle, are to test whether the investigational vaccine is safe, and how much it stimulates the immune system. If the vaccine is found to be safe, future studies will examine whether it can prevent infection.