NYU’s Vaccine Center: A Short History With Significant Contributions

NYU’s Vaccine Center opened in 2018, 2 years prior to the pandemic. Despite it only being opened for a short time, the center played a pivotal role in COVID-19 vaccine development.

Some of its accomplishments include:

• In May 2020, the center vaccinated the first human participant in a clinical trial for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
• In November 2020, it enrolled nearly 1,000 participants in a phase 3 trial for the AstraZeneca vaccine candidate.
• It also participated in major national studies, including the "Mix and Match" trial for booster shots, and evaluated vaccine responses in pregnant and postpartum individuals

“We partnered with NIH and also some other governmental agencies. We also did some partnerships with industry, and we collaborated with them to produce and create the studies that led to the approval of the COVID-19 vaccines,” said Angelica Cifuentes Kottkamp, MD, associate director for Research and Diversity, NYU Vaccine Center. “We did the efficacy and safety trials, and thanks to those trials, we have those vaccines available. They were available in a timely manner to be able to control part of the pandemic in that way, as prevention."

In her position, Cifuentes Kottkamp works on trying to ensure diverse populations are included in vaccine trials, which was an admitted short coming in public health in the early years of the pandemic.

"I like to think that we are including everyone so people feel represented when we're talking about medicine and about results of these vaccine trials,” she said.

Along with that, she really looks to build trust within these marginalized communities, so conversational outreach and education in these areas is vital.

“We like to partner with many community members of New York City and to hear what are their concerns and how they feel about vaccines and what questions they have because they trust us,” Cifuentes Kottkamp said.

NYU is part of the Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Consortium, which is a Clinical Trials Network made up of 10 vaccine and treatment evaluation unit centers nationwide.

“With this collaboration, we're conducting and also producing new ideas and concepts about vaccines that are necessary to control epidemics outbreaks. And to look into different uses of these vaccines that are directly applicable to the public health environment,” she said.

In the next episode, Cifuentes Kottkamp discusses NYU’s approach to identifying and treating zoonotic and vector-borne diseases.