Small particles, big change: Iowa scientists awarded $2 million in CARES funding for COVID-19 nanovaccine

Researchers in Iowa are developing a vaccine to fight the COVID-19 pandemic with unique attributes: it's synthetic, stable at room temperature — for up to a year — and can be administered through an inhaler or nasal spray without a medical professional present.

Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Thursday that a team of scientists from Iowa State University and the University of Iowa would receive a $2 million federal CARES Act grant distributed by the state of Iowa to support their ongoing research.

The vaccine is in a pre-clinical stage and being readied for studies in large animal models, which will be followed by clinical trials, which typically take between six and 18 months.

The vaccine would follow up on the work of "first-generation" vaccines, knowing that more than one type of vaccine will be necessary to combat the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The first generation (vaccines) that are going to come out soon will get us off the floor," Balaji Narasimhan, the project lead and director of the Nanovaccine Institute, a consortium of more than 70 researchers from 20 institutions around the U.S. that's based out of Iowa State, told the Iowa City Press-Citizen on Thursday.

"The second- and third-generation vaccines that we're working on, at Iowa and other places, will really start getting us off the ground and walking and, eventually, flying."

More than 100 vaccines are being developed around the globe to fight the disease, according to the project's grant proposal. SARS-CoV-2, the disease that causes the novel coronavirus, has already resulted in the deaths of 229,000 people in the United States — a number that will continue to grow until vaccines can be widely distributed.

Iowa alone had reported 1,706 deaths from the coronavirus as of 10 a.m. Friday and, like other Midwestern states, is in the midst of yet another surge in cases.

The other vaccines being developed are needle-based, need multiple doses to be effective, and require refrigeration in order to work properly, according to the grant proposal.

Researchers in Iowa are producing the vaccine using microscopically sized nanoparticles that are only about 300 billionths of a meter long.

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The vaccine uses a "plug and play" technology, which means scientists can plug different virus-carrying "payloads" into the nanoparticles and make vaccines for different types of diseases like pneumonia, influenza, RSV or cancer.

In this case, the nanoparticles are made of completely synthetic, biodegradable plastics that can be metabolized by the body — making them safer than live or attenuated vaccines, Narasimhan said.

Many current vaccines are based on older, legacy technologies that are not working as well as they need to, Narasimhan said. That idea well-describes how this research stands apart from others: It's using new tools to solve a complex problem that, in the past, has been addressed with outdated technologies.

Researchers from UI and ISU have been collaborating on flu vaccine research for years through the work of the Nanovaccine Institute, Kevin Legge, a professor in the departments of pathology, microbiology and immunology at UI, told the Press-Citizen.

The similarities between the flu and coronavirus in how they enter the body through the nose and mouth will support researchers' current efforts, Legge said.

"They enter through the same sort of route," he said. "So, understanding how to generate really nice immune responses in that area, which we've learned through our flu vaccine work, is going to be a leg up on this."

Coronavirus mice:In 2006, Iowa researchers created mice susceptible to coronaviruses. Now, scientists around the world are using them to study COVID-19.

The grant will be administered through the Iowa Economic Development Authority.

“Through this important partnership, Iowa is supporting those on the frontlines of nanovaccine development,” Reynolds said in a written statement Thursday. “Iowa’s COVID-19 nanovaccine candidate will not require needles or refrigeration, and could provide long-term immunity from just a single dose. I am proud of the role Iowa State University and the University of Iowa are playing in this cutting-edge development.”

A number of other researchers are contributing to the work, including Michael Wannemuehler, associate director of the Nanovaccine Institute; Stanley Perlman, professor of microbiology, immunology and pediatrics in the UI Carver College of Medicine; and Thomas Waldschmidt, the Clement T. and Sylvia H. Hanson Chair in Immunology in the UI pathology department.

Cleo Krejci covers education for the Iowa City Press-Citizen. You can reach her at ckrejci@press-citizen.com or on Twitter via @_CleoKrejci.