Damron receives continued funding for pertussis research

Heath Damron, professor and director of the Vaccine Development Center in the West Virginia University School of Medicine Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Virology and director of the MD-PhD Program in the Health Science Center Department of Research and Graduate Education, has received notification of R56 award funding for the research project “Development of therapies against pertussis.”

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a part of the National Institutes of Health, awarded $765,537 for the 2026 fiscal year, which represents year six of the grant totaling $4,886,855.

The grant supports research to develop new strategies for preventing and treating pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough, a respiratory disease that can affect people of all ages, especially infants and older adults. The project focuses on using novel vaccine technologies to develop antibody drug therapies that can treat babies, infants, toddlers, or elderly patients with the respiratory disease known as pertussis. Pertussis or whooping cough is caused by the bacterial pathogen Bordetella pertussis. This project aims to reduce illness and deaths from pertussis and improve treatment for vulnerable populations. It will also help create new approaches that may be useful for preventing and treating other diseases.