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This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Emily Mullin.

In the past 20 years alone, three coronaviruses have caused major human disease outbreaks.

First came the original SARS virus in 2002, then Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in 2012,

and in 2019, SARS-CoV-2 emerged setting off a global pandemic.

Hundreds more coronaviruses are lurking in bats and other animals. Scientists have warned that

some of these viruses could emerge in the future to infect people. Our current COVID-19 vaccines

were specifically designed for SARS-CoV-2, but what if a next-generation vaccine could protect

against both known and unknown coronaviruses? Scientists at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research

in Silver Spring, Maryland are working on a so-called universal coronavirus vaccine.

Dr. Kavan Majerit is leading the effort. We've developed a vaccine specifically for SARS-CoV-2,

but what we've seen in our animal studies is that the immune response that it induces

is active against all the variants, as well as other coronaviruses like SARS-CoV-1 that was

seen back in 2002. Before COVID-19, Majerit and his army colleague Gordon Joyce were trying to

develop a universal vaccine against a different group of viruses. One that includes

loss of virus, which is similar to Ebola. So when the new coronavirus was identified as a coronavirus

and the sequence was published January 10th of 2020, that night Dr. Joyce and I had a late-night

...