The laboratory of Dr. Marcus Horwitz in the Department of Medicine focuses on creating vaccines against Tier 1 Select Agents, which are infectious agents that pose a severe threat to the public as potential weapons of bioterrorism, as they cause highly fatal diseases including tularemia, anthrax, plague, and melioidosis. Despite the high risks posed, there is a lack of vaccines available to protect humans and animals from these agents. Dr. Marcus Horwitz and colleagues have developed a versatile vaccine platform (Single Vector Platform for Vaccines against Select Agents and Emerging Pathogens) that can be easily administered and manufactured.
Dr. Horwitz’s lab is currently developing a vaccine against COVID-19 using the laboratory’s Single Vector Platform. This vaccine induces a broad range of immune responses to recombinant proteins of target pathogens and would be able to be administered by multiple routes (intradermally, subcutaneously, intramuscularly, intranasally, inhaled, or orally). The vaccine is manufactured in broth culture, allowing for rapid low cost manufacturing without the need for purification or adjuvants.
Link to Faculty website: https://www.uclahealth.org/infectious-diseases/Workfiles/infectious-diseases/Marcus-Horwitz-profile-page2.pdf
Link to relevant cases: 2016-992