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. The VTC is also closely aligned with the new Translational Global Infectious Disease Research (TGIR) Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE), which brings together investigators from traditionally disparate disciplines to foster novel, collaborative research.

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.

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.

Donations to the Vaccine Testing Center support groundbreaking research and clinical trials that improve people's quality of life and overall global health. More

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Volunteer

Cute Mosquitos Ask for Your Help

Want to help your global community? 

We are currently screening healthy adults aged 18–50 for upcoming vaccine research for mosquito-borne viruses. 

To learn more, contact us about this or ongoing pre-study screenings: 

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

News

VTC and JHU Faculty and Staff 2019 Annual Meeting
Vaccine Testing Center, Johns Hopkins & NIH Celebrate 10-Year Collaboration

A shared mission to reduce the global health threat of dengue viruses and other cousins of the Zika virus family is what brought together researchers from the UVM Vaccine Testing Center, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in late 2008. On June 29, members of the three collaborating institutions gathered for a celebratory ten-year anniversary dinner at Vermont's Inn at Shelburne Farms.

The consortium is led by UVM Vaccine Testing Center Director and Chair of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics Beth Kirkpatrick, M.D., Stephen Whitehead, Ph.D., senior scientist and virologist at the Laboratory of Viral Diseases at the NIAID, and Anna Durbin, M.D., professor of international health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In addition to this ongoing collaboration, the UVM team has garnered additional funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to examine ways to prevent and gain a better understanding of dengue virus infections.

TGIR COBRE

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The Translational Global Infectious Disease Research Center (TGIR) Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will leverage UVM's substantial existing strengths in global infectious diseases research, complex systems and computational modeling to develop innovative approaches to prevent and control infectious disease. To learn more visit the TGIR website.

VTC Showcase

Podcast feature: How we improve global health

MMG/Vaccine Testing Center Faculty Scientist Ross Colgate, PhD, MPH, recently met with UVMMC to talk about the global importance of the work we do and how it is changing lives for the better, especially for the world's children. Listen to the podcast or read the transcript.

Podcast feature: Flu season - How the flu turns deadly (and how to protect yourself)

Benjamin Lee, MD, a researcher at the Vaccine Testing Center at the University of Vermont and pediatric infectious diseases physician at the UVM Children's Hospital talks about what makes the flu deadly, why the flu vaccine is important, and how to stay healthy. Listen to the podcast or read the transcript.