Sean Diehl, PhD Associate Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, and senior laboratory technician Ben McElvany were honored on Tuesday April 14, 2026 at a UVM research celebration for their U.S. Patent, “Highly Specific Zika Neutralizing Antibodies”. Also on the patent are former CMB PhD graduate student Huy Tu, PhD and collaborators at the University of North Carolina. The team discovered two different human antibodies which specifically block Zika virus. The awarded patent is for the use of these antibodies to prevent or treat disease caused by Zika and will secure these antibodies as proprietary test articles for eventual human trials. Since 1947, Zika has caused several outbreaks, the largest and most recent occurring in Brazil in 2015 -16, where microcephaly in infants born to infected mothers and temporary paralysis in adults was observed. There are currently no vaccines or specific medicines against Zika virus.

While antibodies are now commonly used therapeutics, mostly for autoimmune disease, relatively few exist for infectious disease. This patent opens the path towards developing these antibodies into clinical-grade preventative or therapeutic treatments.