A research project at Emory University is among the 22 grants and contracts that are being cancelled as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services begins a “coordinated wind-down” of research studying mRNA vaccine technology.
The grants, which were being developed under the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, amounted to nearly $500 million in funding to research projects. According to the agency website, researchers at Emory received $750,000 to develop an inhalable dry powder that could be used to immunize patients against influenza and SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Emory University did not respond to a request for comment.
Vaccines using mRNA were first developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and won a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2023. While traditional vaccines can take years to develop, mRNA vaccines can be developed much faster, and can be more quickly adapted in response to virus mutations.
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