Award for Innovation in Healthcare & Bioscience

Recognizing achievements in mRNA research and development, BioMedSA honors leader in molecular bioscience

The development of COVID-19 interventions was a pinnacle example of decades of basic science developments across the world coming together for one purpose – to save lives. Before therapies and vaccines could be developed, the basic understandings of viral structure, disease development and progression or pathogenesis and infection control was critical.

 McLellan’s contributions in structure-based vaccine design led to pivotal learnings necessary for the development of trailblazing cures and antibody therapies for COVID-19, as well as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and Ebola. His work helped define the structure of the human coronavirus spike protein. He was the first to define and publish the spike protein 3-D structure of SARS-CoV-2 (Science), a critical piece necessary for vaccine development. In addition, all COVID-19 vaccines authorized for use in the United States use a modified spike protein that contains the engineering adaptations McLellan’s team developed in 2016. This modified protein elicits a robust immune response that contributed to the high efficacy of the vaccines.

His work in SARS-CoV-2 was influenced significantly by his earlier work in RSV, where in 2013 he was runner-up for the Science magazine’s “Breakthrough of the Year.” McLellan was the first to engineer an RSV antigen that elicited a high concentration of neutralizing antibodies in preclinical studies. These early studies led to the development of RSV vaccines approved in 2023 and in use today. 

McLellan received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 2009 before becoming Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. He joined the faculty at UT
Austin as Associate Professor of Molecular Biosciences in 2018.