UMass Medical School to enroll for Moderna youth vaccine trial

Photo | Grant Welker UMass Medical School in Worcester

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By Grant Welker

UMass Medical School will begin enrolling adolescents in a Moderna COVID-19 vaccination trial in early February to make the Worcester college one of 15 such testing sites nationwide.

Moderna's vaccine for adults is already in use, but an ongoing study seeks to learn more about how the vaccine works in those aged 12 to 17. UMass Medical School was also one of 120 centers to enroll participants in a trial last year for the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.

For the Moderna adolescent trial, the Cambridge company is looking to enroll 3,000 people at 15 sites across the country, UMass Medical School said. Worcester's is the only such location in the Northeast, though others are also planned in Warwick, R.I., and Syracuse, N.Y. A geographic diversity is part of the trial's objective, including enrolling underserved racial and ethnic minorities most affected by the virus.

The trial will determine whether adolescents who receive the vaccine create the same immune responses as adults, principal investigator Dr. Katherine Luzuriaga said in a statement. As with the Pfizer study, participants will receive either the vaccine or a placebo, and they'll be followed for as long as a year after receiving the vaccine's second dose.