Preparing for the Next Pandemic

Paul Duprex

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was all hands on deck at Pitt’s Center for Vaccine Research (CVR), where researchers were among the first in the United States to be able to study the actual virus.

Now, with the pandemic waning, CVR scientists are again focusing on basic research on a broad spectrum of viruses—the same kind of expertise that made the center well-positioned to leap into action in 2020. 

“I’m really proud of what the center contributed,” says Paul Duprex, Jonas Salk Professor of Vaccine Research in Pitt’s School of Medicine and CVR’s director. “You have to know when to jump in, but you also have to know when to jump out, when you’ve done what you were morally obligated to do.”

Duprex breaks down the center’s mission into three areas: how viruses emerge as a threat to humans, how they make us sick, and how we fight them. Scientists at the CVR tackle these questions across a broad range of different viruses that are or could be a danger to humans.

The recognition garnered by the center for its pandemic preparedness research also sparked new partnerships for the CVR, including growing collaborations with pharmaceutical companies and international organizations. The worst of the pandemic may be behind us, “but it doesn’t mean you go back to where you were,” Duprex says. “Science always evolves.”

To pursue that mission, Duprex is reimagining the center’s Regional Biocontainment Laboratory, a high-security facility where researchers safely study dangerous viruses. He’s also overseeing a greater focus on influenza virus and believes it is vital to expand research on arboviruses—those carried by insects and similar species, and are likely to become a bigger threat due to climate change.

Valerie Le Sage, research assistant professor of microbiology and molecular genetics in the School of Medicine, is designing experiments that more closely mimic how the influenza virus is transmitted through the air. With access to the biocontainment laboratory and the collaborative research environment offered by the CVR, she hopes to
expand that more real-world approach to experiments on other viruses
of concern.

Amy Hartman, associate professor in the School of Public Health, studies a group of mosquito-borne viruses called bunyaviruses. She researches how one such disease, Rift Valley fever, can infect animals as diverse as mosquitoes, cows, and humans and is working to prevent the spread of the virus to fetuses. Rift Valley fever causes widespread disease in Africa and the Middle East.