“Gaithersburg, Md., Firm Investigates SARS Vaccine”

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GenVec, located in Gaithersburg, Md., has begun working on a vaccine for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), using an approach new to vaccine research. The method puts synthetic genes of the SARS coronavirus into a benign form of another virus to try to stimulate an immune response. GenVec's research is supported by a $420,000 National Institutes of Health grant. The company is using an adenovirus as the carrier for the SARS genes; if the virus works, the body will produce SARS proteins from the SARS genes and then begin an immune response to the proteins, and the adenovirus tends to induce a combination T-cell and antibody response. This method has provided some results in research for an Ebola vaccine.

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