Key NIH Vaccine Center Slammed by Contract Cuts

The National Institute of Health’s (NIH’s) Vaccine Research Center (VRC), once a roughly 400-person workforce that helped develop and clinically test vaccines and antibody treatments for Ebola and other infectious diseases, has seen significant staff reductions. Launched 25 years ago, the VRC has traditionally tackled “big problems,” like producing novel vaccines and antibodies to treat diseases such as malaria, according to E. John Wherry, PhD, the Richard and Barbara Schiffrin President’s Distinguished Professor and chair of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics.