Duke Medicine has been named a Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit (VTEU) by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, to evaluate vaccines, treatments and diagnostics to protect people from infectious diseases, including emerging public health needs.
Duke was the only new site named since 2007 to the existing group of eight VTEUs. Each institution has the potential to receive funding estimated to be up to $135 million annually over a seven-year period.
Duke’s VTEU research will be administered through the Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI), already a leader in the fight against major infectious diseases, with programs at the vanguard of developing vaccines for HIV, flu, tuberculosis, dengue and others. The Duke VTEU brings together a consortium of Duke investigators with extensive clinical and scientific vaccine expertise.
The VTEU designation builds on a model of successful vaccine research at Duke led by the DHVI, which was formed in 1990 to support vaccine research and development across many disciplines at Duke. Known for its groundbreaking work researching vaccines for HIV, Duke’s vaccine institute was awarded a Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology and Immunogen Discovery (CHAVI-ID) grant in 2012 to provide oversight of as much as $189 million in federal research funds. Read the full announcement.