About

About The MCCR Program

The MCCR research program uses Texas Biomed’s Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) laboratory to safely study CDC select agents and advance the development of vaccines and therapies for hemorrhagic fever.  In support of countermeasure development, we have developed novel nonhuman primate models for hemorrhagic fever viruses, encephalitis viruses, and further characterized macaque models for use in animal rule studies.  We have provided evidence for the utility of the marmoset in high biocontainment research. We have published data on the utility of this primate as a model for Lassa hemorrhagic fever and eastern equine encephalitis as well as used the Lassa marmoset model in a vaccine efficacy study.

The second focus of our research deals with advanced development of vaccines and novel therapies for BSL-3 and BSL-4 agents. Most recently we have advanced vaccine platforms and monoclonal antibody therapies for prevention treatment of both filoviral disease and Covid-19.  We have contributed to advance preclinical testing of COVID vaccines from Pfizer and Novavax as well as therapeutic antibody cocktails developed with Regeneron.  We have participated as subcontractors on several task order contracts over the last decade for both NIH and BARDA which included characterization of macaque models for filovirus induced disease under the animal rule.  Finally, MCCR has contributed to development of novel diagnostic methods for detection of risk group 4 pathogens. For this effort our laboratory has demonstrated the efficacy of the countermeasure in rodents and nonhuman primates