Improving How We Track Vaccine Side Effects
Incorporation of multilevel ontologies of adverse events and vaccines for vaccine safety surveillance
This project creates new ways to look at information about vaccine side effects to make sure vaccines are as safe as possible, especially for children.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Northwestern University NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Chicago, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11249795 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
Vaccines are held to very high safety standards, particularly because they are often given to healthy people, including children. This project focuses on developing stronger methods to analyze reports of side effects that occur after vaccination. Currently, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) collects these reports, but existing analysis methods might miss serious side effects by assuming different types of side effects are unrelated. Our goal is to build new statistical tools that use detailed information about both side effects and vaccines to find safety concerns more accurately and efficiently.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: This project does not directly involve patient participation but aims to improve vaccine safety for all individuals, particularly children aged 0-11 years who receive vaccines.
Not a fit: Patients not receiving vaccines or outside the 0-11 age range may not see direct benefits from this specific improvement in pediatric vaccine safety surveillance.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could lead to faster and more accurate detection of vaccine safety concerns, protecting public health, especially for children.
How similar studies have performed: This project proposes novel statistical methods to overcome limitations of existing vaccine safety surveillance techniques.
Where this research is happening
Chicago, United States
- Northwestern University — Chicago, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Zhao, Lili — Northwestern University
- Study coordinator: Zhao, Lili
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.