CNPRC Research on COVID-19

In partnership with UC Davis Health and the UC Davis Center for Immunology and Infectious Disease (CIID) the California National Primate Research Center (CNPRC) played a pivotal role in developing a successful diagnostic test that has significantly boosted California’s COVID-19 testing capacity  and vaccine development.

Given the many close parallels between human and non-human primate (NHP) physiology, including similar respiratory systems and immune-aging patterns, NHP research is a critical translational model for understanding how COVID-19 develops and spreads—and one of our best hopes for the timely development of therapeutics, vaccines and potential cures. The CNPRC has the nation’s best-characterized population of older primates—a vital advantage in better understanding how age affects the course of COVID-19 and in predicting how the virus may impact vulnerable older adults with long-term conditions like hypertension and Type-2 diabetes.

The CNPRC, collaborating with world-leading scientists and clinicians across UC Davis and around the globe, has the potential to transform how we understand, treat and prevent COVID-19 and future coronavirus outbreaks.  Work at the CNPRC is key to rapid progress in fighting COVID-19—and it will be equally critical in mounting effective responses to new viral pandemics that will inevitably emerge in the future.

CNPRC Core Scientist Koen van Rompay shares the process of developing vaccines and therapeutic treatments for infectious diseases like COVID-19.  

CNPRC COVID-19 Research in the Media Archives