Improving Global Health

VTC Researcher in Bangladesh holding baby with motherFaculty researchers at the Vaccine Testing Center (VTC) study human vaccines with the goal of understanding and preventing infectious diseases around the globe. The VTC is in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, which bridges both the University of Vermont College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the Larner College of Medicine.

Our team is particularly interested in new vaccines with the potential to prevent or control infectious diseases in developing countries. We are a diverse team of clinicians, study coordinators, scientists, and laboratory personnel. Volunteers are critical to our work and our human research studies are designed and performed with rigorous oversight and safety.

Want to volunteer?  Learn and get started.

Volunteer

Cute Mosquitos Ask You to Help the Global Community -Volunteer!

Want to help your global community? 

Are you between the ages of 18 -40? We're looking for healthy volunteers to help us fight mosquito-borne illnesses through vaccine studies.

To find out more about our ongoing pre-study screenings: 

Volunteers are a critical part of our research and their contributions save lives every day. Thank you! 

Research 

Lab Tech looking in microscope

The Vaccine Testing Center's team of scientists and researchers are committed to solving the world’s most pressing infectious disease challenges. Our research spans the translational spectrum from lab-based human immunology to domestic clinical trials to large-scale international field research. Together with national and international collaborators and local volunteers, we help develop vaccines to address global infectious diseases, including rotavirus, cholera, dengue and other flaviviruses. More VTC research.

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News

VTC Lab technician working under hood

Vaccine Testing Center a Site for New NIH Live, Attenuated Zika Vaccine Trial

Vaccinations have begun in a first-in-human trial of an experimental live, attenuated Zika virus vaccine. The Vaccine Testing Center at the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont in Burlington and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Immunization Research in Baltimore, Md. are the two sites where the vaccine will be tested. See the story on VT's Local 44 news and learn more about the trial.

See our news archives.

 

VTC Director Beth Kirkpatrick, M.D. (from UVM's "Move Mountains" Campaign)

 

VTC Showcase

 Kirkpatrick Appointed Chair of MMG

Beth D. Kirkpatrick, M.D., Director of the Vaccine Testing Center and Professor in Infectious Diseases, has been appointed as Chair of the UVM Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics (MMG) at the Larner College of Medicine and College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Learn more here.

Student Stories

Dylan Koundakjian Headshot

This summer the VTC welcomes Dylan Koundakjian to the Diehl Lab as a Medical Student Summer Research Fellow. His project, “CD14+CD16+ monocyte stimulation of B cell responses in DENV vaccination.”, focuses on characterizing a monocyte subset which becomes activated in response to acute dengue infection/vaccination and will test the mechanism by which this population stimulates B cells to differentiate into antibody-producing plasmablasts.