Viruses, Vaccines and Infectious Diseases
This Is How We Go Viral
Philanthropy is critical to fueling our researchers’ efforts to advance our knowledge of viruses and how viral infections can be better detected, prevented and treated.
Relentlessly Searching for Answers
Our pioneering work in bone marrow transplantation revealed the urgent need to protect transplant patients from deadly infections, which launched our quest to gain an in-depth understanding of the immune system.
Today, Fred Hutch is known for our expertise in virology and infectious disease. We are working in the laboratory, the clinic and the cloud to find better ways to detect, prevent and treat viruses and other infections to protect patients and communities. Working across disciplines, we are studying how HIV, COVID-19 and other viruses evolve; learning how pathogens cause cancers; and developing and advancing treatments that harness patients’ own immune systems to fight disease.
Your support not only empowers our researchers to develop better treatments — and even cures — for HIV and other viral diseases, but also gives us the tools to guide public health officials’ strategies for containing outbreaks of diseases, including Zika, Ebola and now COVID-19.
Research with Wide-ranging Impact
New hope for an HIV vaccine
At the Fred Hutch-based HIV Vaccine Trials Network, researchers are testing out a new vaccine for the virus that causes AIDS that could help the body’s immune system produce “broadly neutralizing antibodies,” which are better equipped to block the many escape routes of this rapidly evolving virus.
Developing new COVID-19 vaccines faster
As the need for protection against new COVID-19 variants increases, Fred Hutch researchers have developed a laboratory test to measure the effectiveness of new vaccines, speeding development of new variant-specific vaccines.
Gene therapy shows signs of eliminating herpes
Through a series of incremental improvements on a gene therapy they developed nearly a decade ago, Fred Hutch researchers recently showed they had destroyed up to 95% of herpes virus lurking in certain nerve clusters in pre-clinical models, giving hope to people with this incurable virus.
Wiping out a triple threat with one virus
The common Epstein-Barr virus is thought to be at least partly responsible for a handful of cancer types, mononucleosis and even multiple sclerosis. Fred Hutch scientists are testing a nanoparticle-based vaccine designed to train the immune system to attack unique proteins found on the virus’s surface.
Featured Researchers
Dr. Keith Jerome
Dr. Jerome is a renowned virologist who studies the way viruses such as herpes simplex, HIV and hepatitis B evade the immune system and potential therapies for these infections.
Dr. Julie McElrath
Dr. McElrath, who holds the Joel D. Meyers Endowed Chair, is a principal investigator and director of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network’s Laboratory Center and a global leader in the study of ways to prevent and control HIV infection.
Dr. Denise Galloway
Dr. Galloway, who holds the Paul Stephanus Memorial Endowed Chair, studies the human papillomavirus, which causes nearly all cases of cervical cancer; and Merkel cell polyomavirus, which is linked to a rare but aggressive skin cancer called Merkel cell carcinoma.
Dr. Harmit Malik
Dr. Malik studies genetic conflict, the competition between hosts and the pathogens that infect them that drives evolutionary change. His research could have implications for a range of diseases, from HIV to cancer.