Kayvon Modjarrad, MD, PhD is the founding Director of the Emerging Infectious Diseases Branch at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and Associate Professor of Medicine at the Uniformed Services University. Dr. Modjarrad leads the U.S. Army's development of a vaccine against COVID-19, co-leads all of WRAIR’s COVID-19 response efforts and serves as a member of Operation Warp Speed. Dr. Modjarrad is also an advisory member of the World Health Organization’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts Immunization Working Group on COVID-19 Vaccines and Vaccination.
Dr. Modjarrad's team has developed a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine that is based on a nanoparticle platform that will enter a Phase I clinical trial later this year. He previously co-led the US Army’s Zika vaccine program and was assigned to the World Health Organization in 2015 where he supported the execution of Ebola vaccine trials and authored the Roadmap for MERS Coronavirus vaccine development.
Dr. Modjarrad, originally from New Jersey, began his training in biology at Duke University and then went on to obtain his MD, MPH and PhD through the National Institutes of Health-funded, combined degree, Medical Scientist Training Program. In the course of this training, he went to Lusaka, Zambia, in 2003-2004 as a Boren Fellow, where he established a research clinic, implemented a study to evaluate the impact of parasitic infections on HIV, and bolstered local infrastructure in preparation for the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. He then went on to complete his Internship and Residency in Internal Medicine and Fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Yale, Vanderbilt, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Dr. Modjarrad has published more than 70 peer-reviewed manuscripts and has served as the principal editor for two textbooks, most recently one on emerging vaccine technologies.
1. Dearlove B, Lewitus E, Bai H, Li Y, Reeves DB, Joyce MG, Scott PT, Amare MF, Vasan S, Michael NL, Modjarrad K, Rolland M. A SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate would likely match all currently circulating variants. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 Sep 22;117(38):23652-23662. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2008281117. Epub 2020 Aug 31. PMID: 32868447
2. Barnes KG, Lachenauer AE, Nitido A, Siddiqui S, Gross R, Beitzel B, Siddle KJ, Freije CA, Dighero-Kemp B, Mehta SB, Carter A, Uwanibe J, Ajogbasile F, Olumade T, Odia I, Sandi JD, Momoh M, Metsky HC, Boehm CK, Lin AE, Kemball M, Park DJ, Branco L, Boisen M, Sullivan B, Amare MF, Tiamiyu AB, Parker ZF, Iroezindu M, Grant DS, Modjarrad K, Myhrvold C, Garry RF, Palacios G, Hensley LE, Schaffner SF, Happi CT, Colubri A, Sabeti PC. Deployable CRISPR-Cas13a diagnostic tools to detect and report Ebola and Lassa virus cases in real-time. Nat Commun. 2020 Aug 17;11(1):4131. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-17994-9. PMID: 32807807
3. Joyce MG, Wheatley AK, Modjarrad K. Need for Speed: From Human SARS-CoV-2 Samples to Protective and Efficacious Antibodies in Weeks. Cell. 2020 Jul 9;182(1):7-9. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2020.06.017. PMID: 32649880
4. Stephenson KE, Tan CS, Walsh SR, Hale A, Ansel JL, Kanjilal DG, Jaegle K, Peter L, Borducchi EN, Nkolola JP, Makoni T, Fogel R, Bradshaw C, Tyler A, Moseley E, Chandrashekar A, Yanosick KE, Seaman MS, Eckels KH, De La Barrera RA, Thompson J, Dawson P, Thomas SJ, Michael NL, Modjarrad K, Barouch DH. Safety and immunogenicity of a Zika purified inactivated virus vaccine given via standard, accelerated, or shortened schedules: a single-centre, double-blind, sequential-group, randomised, placebo-controlled, phase 1 trial. Lancet Infect Dis. 2020 Sep;20(9):1061-1070. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30085-2. Epub 2020 May 6. PMID: 32618279 Clinical Trial.
5. Joyce MG, Sankhala RS, Chen WH, Choe M, Bai H, Hajduczki A, Yan L, Sterling SL, Peterson CE, Green EC, Smith C, de Val N, Amare M, Scott P, Laing ED, Broder CC, Rolland M, Michael NL, Modjarrad K. A Cryptic Site of Vulnerability on the Receptor Binding Domain of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike Glycoprotein. bioRxiv. 2020 Mar 17:2020.03.15.992883. doi: 10.1101/2020.03.15.992883. Preprint. PMID: 32511298.
6. Modjarrad K, Kim JH. Two Middle East respiratory syndrome vaccines: first step for other coronavirus vaccines? Lancet Infect Dis. 2020 Jul;20(7):760-761. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30317-0. Epub 2020 Apr 21. PMID: 32325036.
7. Ajogbasile FV, Oguzie JU, Oluniyi PE, Eromon PE, Uwanibe JN, Mehta SB, Siddle KJ, Odia I, Winnicki SM, Akpede N, Akpede G, Okogbenin S, Ogbaini-Emovon E, MacInnis BL, Folarin OA, Modjarrad K, Schaffner SF, Tomori O, Ihekweazu C, Sabeti PC, Happi CT. Real-time Metagenomic Analysis of Undiagnosed Fever Cases Unveils a Yellow Fever Outbreak in Edo State, Nigeria. Sci Rep. 2020 Feb 21;10(1):3180. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-59880-w. PMID: 32081931.
8. Dussupt V, Sankhala RS, Gromowski GD, Donofrio G, De La Barrera RA, Larocca RA, Zaky W, Mendez-Rivera L, Choe M, Davidson E, McCracken MK, Brien JD, Abbink P, Bai H, Bryan AL, Bias CH, Berry IM, Botero N, Cook T, Doria-Rose NA, Escuer AGI, Frimpong JA, Geretz A, Hernandez M, Hollidge BS, Jian N, Kabra K, Leggat DJ, Liu J, Pinto AK, Rutvisuttinunt W, Setliff I, Tran U, Townsley S, Doranz BJ, Rolland M, McDermott AB, Georgiev IS, Thomas R, Robb ML, Eckels KH, Barranco E, Koren M, Smith DR, Jarman RG, George SL, Stephenson KE, Barouch DH, Modjarrad K, Michael NL, Joyce MG, Krebs SJ Potent Zika and dengue cross-neutralizing antibodies induced by Zika vaccination in a dengue-experienced donor. Nat Med. 2020 Feb;26(2):228-235. doi: 10.1038/s41591-019-0746-2. Epub 2020 Feb 3. PMID: 32015557.
9. Monath TP, Fast PE, Modjarrad K, Clarke DK, Martin BK, Fusco J, Nichols R, Heppner DG, Simon JK, Dubey S, Troth SP, Wolf J, Singh V, Coller BA, Robertson JS; Brighton Collaboration Viral Vector Vaccines Safety Working Group (V3SWG). rVSVΔG-ZEBOV-GP (also designated V920) recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus pseudotyped with Ebola Zaire Glycoprotein: Standardized template with key considerations for a risk/benefit assessment. Vaccine X. 2019 Jan 29;1:100009. doi: 10.1016/j.jvacx.2019.100009. eCollection 2019 Apr 11. PMID: 31384731.
10. Modjarrad K, Roberts CC, Mills KT, Castellano AR, Paolino K, Muthumani K, Reuschel EL, Robb ML, Racine T, Oh MD, Lamarre C, Zaidi FI, Boyer J, Kudchodkar SB, Jeong M, Darden JM, Park YK, Scott PT, Remigio C, Parikh AP, Wise MC, Patel A, Duperret EK, Kim KY, Choi H, White S, Bagarazzi M, May JM, Kane D, Lee H, Kobinger G, Michael NL, Weiner DB, Thomas SJ, Maslow JN. Safety and immunogenicity of an anti-Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus DNA vaccine: a phase 1, open-label, single-arm, dose-escalation trial. Lancet Infect Dis. 2019 Sep;19(9):1013-1022. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(19)30266-X. Epub 2019 Jul 24. PMID: 31351922.
Full list of publications: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Modjarrad&sort=date