Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Consortium (IDCRC)

In 2019, NIAID established the Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Consortium (IDCRC), a clinical trials network that encompasses the Institute’s long-standing Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units (VTEUs) and a consortium leadership group.

The consortium leadership group is chaired by David S. Stephens, M.D., of Emory University, and vice-chair James D. Campbell, M.D., M.S, of the University of Maryland School of Medicine. The group, which includes VTEU investigators as well as other scientific experts in infectious diseases, prioritizes candidate vaccines, diagnostics, therapeutics, and other interventions to test in clinical trials.

The VTEUs are located at institutions across the United States. They conduct Phase 1 through 4 vaccine and treatment trials, including clinical studies in collaboration with industry partners. Depending on the disease or condition, the VTEUs may establish study sites and enroll participants at locations outside the United States. Additionally, VTEU sites have the capacity to conduct human challenge trials—where healthy volunteers are exposed to infection under tightly controlled conditions—of influenza, malaria, and other diseases.

The VTEUs are ready resources to help NIAID respond quickly to public health emergencies, including COVID-19. For example, they rapidly enrolled healthy volunteers for NIAID’s mRNA-1273 vaccine study, and enrolled COVID-19 patients for the Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial, meeting rigorous scientific standards and generating high quality data.