Halting COVID-19 is the world’s most urgent priority right now.  The California National Primate Research Center (CNPRC) plays a pivotal role in these efforts—from partnering with UC Davis Health and the UC Davis Center for Immunology and Infectious Disease (CIID) to develop a successful diagnostic test that has significantly boosted California’s testing capacity, to working with the CIID on potentially game-changing therapeutic testing and vaccine development research underway.

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 Core Scientist Dennis Hartigan O’Connor answers questions about vaccine development and discusses the role of non-human primates.

• December 2 , 2022  Experimental COVID-19 Vaccine Offers Long-Term Protection Against Severe Disease

• October 14^th , 2022  COVID-19 Virus Infects Neurons, Induces Inflammation in the Brain 

• November 10^th , 2021 Cause of Neurological COVID-19 symptoms explored 

• November 4^th, 2021 How Covid Attacks the Brain May Explain Long-Lasting Symptoms

• November 1^st 2021 Antibody Treatment Prevents Inflammation in Lungs, Nervous System in Macaques with SARS-CoV-2

• December 19^th 2020 Primates Used in Testing of JuvenileCOVID-19 Vaccine Show ‘Promising’ Results 

• December 18^th 2020 UC Davis Testing Childhood COVID-19 Vaccine on Monkeys, Says ‘Data Looks Very Promising’

• December 9^th 2020 Vaccination Anticipation

• December 2^nd 2020 When will children get a vaccine? Not in time for the new school year, experts fear.

• October 19^th 2020 We can’t defeat COVID-19 without vaccinating children. There aren’t even any kids’ clinical trials yet.

• August 6^th 2020 The Coronavirus Is New, but Your Immune System Might Still Recognize it

• June 5^th 2020 UCOP Seed Grants Fund COVID-19 Research Projects

• May 11^th 2020 The Search for a COVID-19 Research Animal Model

• April 29^th 2020 COVID-19 Vaccine With Patch Delivery Technology Enters Preclinical Testing at UC Davis

• April 13^th 2020 UC Davis Researchers Work Toward Developing Potential Vaccine for COVID-19

• April 8^th 2020 Continuing the Conversation: Dr. Koen Van Rompay on Vaccines and Animal Models

• April 8^th 2020 Studying Coronaviruses: Vectors to Vaccines

• April 3^rd 2020 Safely conducting essential research in the face of COVID-19

• March 26^th 2020 Cerus Forms Group to Research Optimal Production of COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma

• March 21^st 2020 UC Davis Researchers Race to Develop Coronavirus Solution

• March 20^th 2020 UC Davis Researchers Race to Develop Coronavirus Solutions