Federal Grant Award Summary

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) awarded $223,728 to the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc. on May 22, 2026, under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855). This project grant supports the development and evaluation of a whole inactivated vaccine against Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68), a reemerging pathogen that causes polio-like illness in children. The research will utilize a novel inactivation approach designed to preserve conformational neutralizing antibody epitopes, with the goal of providing protection against both acute respiratory pathology and acute flaccid myelitis-like disease associated with EV-D68 infection.

The grant-funded research encompasses two primary objectives: Aim 1 will determine whether the whole inactivated EV-D68 vaccine prevents acute respiratory pathology, while Aim 2 will examine whether vaccination prevents acute flaccid myelitis-like disease. The project, scheduled for completion by April 30, 2028, is being conducted in Bethesda, Maryland. The outcomes of these studies are intended to inform the development of a highly efficacious vaccine against EV-D68 infection, addressing an urgent public health need given the anticipated increase in outbreak frequency and magnitude of EV-D68-related polio-like paralytic cases in children.