On Aug. 7, 2020, scientists at Scripps Research announced they had obtained high-resolution, atomic-scale details of the structure of a SARS-CoV-2 ﾓspikeﾔ protein from an experimental COVID-19 vaccineﾗdetails that are consistent with the robust neutralizing antibody responses the vaccine elicited in preclinical and phase 1 clinical studies.

The experimental vaccine, NVX-CoV2373, was being developed and tested in clinical trials by the vaccine maker Novavax. It used lab-grown copies of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to stimulate neutralizing antibody responses to this key viral protein, with the goal of blocking new COVID-19 infections.