{"id":242842,"date":"2026-11-13T19:59:14","date_gmt":"2026-11-13T13:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kgumsb.edu.bt\/?p=242842"},"modified":"2026-11-13T19:59:17","modified_gmt":"2026-11-13T13:59:17","slug":"closing-ceremony-marks-successful-completion-of-the-moderna-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kgumsb.edu.bt\/?p=242842","title":{"rendered":"Closing Ceremony Marks Successful Completion of the Moderna Project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Khesar Gyalpo University of Medical Sciences of Bhutan (KGUMSB) and Bhutan Foundation jointly held the closing ceremony of the\u00a0COVID-19 Vaccine Reactogenicity and Immunogenicity, and Capacity Building Project\u00a0(the \u201cModerna Project\u201d)<\/em><\/strong> on 13 November 2026. The ceremony was graced by Hon\u2019ble Health Minister Tandin Wangchuk and was attended by representatives of partner agencies, project donors, health professionals and members of the university community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The four-and-a-half-year project ran from January 2022 to June 2026. It began as a vaccine study and grew into a national investment in laboratories, systems and people. It was launched under a Grant Agreement signed on 15 February 2022 between the Gross National Happiness Commission, Bhutan Foundation and KGUMSB. With funding exceeding USD 3 million, KGUMSB implemented the project with the Royal Centre for Disease Control (RCDC), Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital (JDWNRH) and the Ministry of Health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What the project delivered?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vaccine research: <\/strong>A study of the uptake, immunogenicity and reactogenicity of the mRNA-1273 (Moderna) vaccine among adults and adolescents, with participants across six public sampling sites.
Equipment: Laboratory and ICT equipment for RCDC, JDWNRH and KGUMSB, now in daily use for testing, teaching and research.
Bhutan Vaccine System<\/strong>: A new vaccine efficacy module, so vaccination and vaccine-efficacy data now sit on one national platform.
Training:<\/strong> More than 200 laboratory professionals trained in Good Clinical Laboratory Practice (GCLP) across all districts, and 1,417 health workers trained in infection prevention.
Stronger laboratory services:<\/strong> ELISA testing, including HIV confirmatory testing, now available at regional hospitals, and the first National Laboratory Symposium, held in June 2026 with 85 participants.
Future experts:<\/strong> Three long-term scholarships (one PhD in Bioinformatics and two MSc degrees), a research mentorship programme (B-SMART 3.0) and a new BSc in Medical Laboratory Technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KGUMSB extends its sincere gratitude to the Bhutan Foundation, Moderna Inc., the Ministry of Health, RCDC, JDWNRH and all partners who made the project possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Khesar Gyalpo University of Medical Sciences of Bhutan (KGUMSB) and Bhutan Foundation jointly held the closing ceremony of the\u00a0COVID-19 Vaccine Reactogenicity and Immunogenicity, and Capacity Building Project\u00a0(the \u201cModerna Project\u201d) on 13 November 2026. The ceremony was graced by Hon\u2019ble Health … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":241869,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsroom"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kgumsb.edu.bt\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kgumsb.edu.bt\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kgumsb.edu.bt\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kgumsb.edu.bt\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kgumsb.edu.bt\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=242842"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kgumsb.edu.bt\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":242848,"href":"https:\/\/www.kgumsb.edu.bt\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242842\/revisions\/242848"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kgumsb.edu.bt\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/241869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kgumsb.edu.bt\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=242842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kgumsb.edu.bt\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=242842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kgumsb.edu.bt\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=242842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}