Congresswoman DeLauro to Visit Meriden Lab Working on Ebola Vaccine

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, serving Connecticut’s third congressional district, will visit Protein Sciences in Meriden at 3 p.m.

Protein Sciences, a lab with over 30 years of experience in developing preventive vaccines and biopharmaceuticals, is currently working on a preventive Ebola vaccine. Protein Sciences was contacted by the government in June to develop the vaccine.

DeLauro will tour the facility led by Protein Sciences leadership.

The Congresswoman has been a strong supporter of increased funding for biomedical research, such as the work being done at Protein Sciences. She has called on Congress to come back to Washington before the November election to vote for more resources for critical components of the country’s public health infrastructure.

Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute of Health provided assistance to Protein Sciences for developing the vaccine. The CDC provided the genetic code sequence and the NIH will conduct advanced trials on the vaccine.

Protein Sciences expects to have something to the NIH by the end of the year.

The outbreak of Ebola in West Africa has been ongoing since March 2014 and is the largest and most complex outbreak in history, according to the CDC.

Ebola, a non-airborne virus, is spread through direct contact with an infected person’s bodily fluids. Last week, the first case of Ebola was diagnosed in the United States.

Image via Shutterstock

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