Jason S. McLellan

Jason S. McLellan is a structural biologist, professor in the Department of Molecular Biosciences and Robert A. Welch Chair in Chemistry at The University of Texas at Austin a new version of the stabilized SARS-CoV-2 spike protein called HexaPro that is currently being used as the basis for a new vaccine, NDV-HXP-S, which is undergoing trials in Brazil, Mexico, Thailand and Vietnam. These new vaccines are using a harmless avian virus that causes Newcastle Disease. This vaccine has the benefit of being easy to grow in chicken eggs, which are the basis of existing Influenza vaccines and are easier for developing nations to produce.

McLellan and his team worked with pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company to develop their monoclonal antibody treatment bamlanivimab (LY-CoV555), Also in 2022, Dartmouth College awarded McLellan the inaugural McGuire Family Prize for Societal Impact, and he was named a finalist for the Blavatnik National Award for Young Scientists. In 2023, he was chosen for the NAS Award in Molecular Biology and the Welch Foundation's Norman Hackerman Award in Chemical Research, and named a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors. In 2024, he was honored with a 2024 IVI-SK bioscience Park MahnHoon Award by the International Vaccine Institute. In 2025, he was selected for induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

In October 2025, McLellan was named to the MacArthur Fellows Program, popularly known as the MacArthur Foundation's "Genius Award."