Congratulations to Caitlin Williams, PhD on receiving funding for her study, “Maternal Interference of Infant SARS-CoV-2 mRNA Vaccination,” as part of the Thrasher Research Fund Early Career Award Program.
Previous clinical trials for SARS-CoV-2 vaccines did not explicitly investigate maternal antibodies (matAb) or the impact of passive immunity, which is the transfer of ready-made antibodies from the mother to infant. For this study, Dr. Williams’ will investigate how maternal antibodies can protect newborns and infants against COVID-19. She will investigate the capacity of matAb to bind to and neutralize a variety of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, like the delta and omicron variants, to define the potency of maternal antibody, as well as study whether maternal antibody interfere with infant immune responses to COVID-19 vaccines.
The overall goal of this project is to develop a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine to serve as preliminary data for future infant COVID-19 clinical trials, as well as encourage extending the current human trials to newborns.