User:Marcairhart/sandbox

Jason McLellan is a structural biologist and an associate professor of molecular biosciences at The University of Texas at Austin who specializes in coronaviruses. His research focuses on applying structural information to the rational design of vaccines and other therapies for viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

In 2020, McLellan and his team collaborated with researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ Vaccine Research Center to design a stabilized version of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which biotechnology company Moderna used as the basis for the vaccine candidate mRNA-1273, the first COVID-19 vaccine candidate to enter phase I clinical trials in the U.S. and to be approved to enter phase II clinical trials in the U.S.