Zika VirusCourtesy: NIH Image Gallery

What’s the latest buzz about Zika? The mosquito-borne virus is still infecting people around the globe -- even in the U.S. -- and putting unborn babies in particular at risk. Texas Biomed has just won a grant from the federal government to test two different ways of immunizing pregnant women. The idea is to prevent transmission of the infectious disease from expectant woman to her child.

Zika has been around for decades, but the virus roared into the headlines when it caused a spate of terrible birth defects in Brazil four years ago.

While Texas Biomed is providing the nonhuman primate animal models and the expertise in virology for this project, partners in New York are looking at other aspects of a possible Zika vaccine.

Professor Jean Patterson, Ph.D., is the Principal Investigator on the project at Texas Biomed.