Preclinical
The goal of ACTIV is to develop a research strategy for prioritizing and speeding development of the most promising COVID-19 vaccines and treatments.
Overview
The Preclinical Working Group is focused on:
- Establishing a centralized process and repository for harmonizing and sharing methods and evaluating animal models
- Extending access to high-throughput screening facilities, especially in biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) labs
- Increasing access to validated animal models
- Enhancing comparison of approaches to identify informative assays
- Generating a process to assess viral variant effects on vaccines and therapeutics
TRACE Initiative
The Tracking Resistance and Coronavirus Evolution (TRACE) initiative is focused on:
- Monitoring global emergence and circulation of SARS-CoV-2 mutations
- Cross-referencing initial sequence data against database of experimentally or clinically phenotyped mutants
- Characterizing prioritized mutants in vitro through critical-path assays
- Characterizing prioritized mutants in vivo through critical-path assays
- Rapidly sharing activity data with ACTIV and scientific community
Scientific Publications
ACTIVating Resources for the COVID-19 Pandemic: In Vivo Models for Vaccines and Therapeutics. Hewitt JA, Lutz C, Florence WC, Pitt MLM, Rao S, Rappaport J, Haigwood NL. Cell Host Microbe. 2020 Nov 11;28(5):646-659. doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2020.09.016. Epub 2020 Oct 1. PMID: 33152279 Free PMC article. Review.
Accelerated Preclinical Paths to Support Rapid Development of COVID-19 Therapeutics. Grobler JA, Anderson AS, Fernandes P, Diamond MS, Colvis CM, Menetski JP, Alvarez RM, Young JAT, Carter KL. Cell Host Microbe. 2020 Nov 11;28(5):638-645. doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2020.09.017. Epub 2020 Oct 1. PMID: 33152278 Free PMC article. Review.