Researchers at Pfizer and New York University are working on a never-before-tried coronavirus vaccine that the pharmaceutical company believes could be available by September.

The vaccine, which carries genetic code known as “messenger RNA,” attempts to reprogram the deadly pathogen rather than manipulating the live virus.

“It is probably the fastest way of having a vaccine available to stem this pandemic, based on the data that I have seen,” said Kathrin Jansen, who leads vaccine research for Pfizer.

For more on this story watch NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt tonight at 6:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. CT.

The vaccine instructs a person’s cells to make proteins associated with the coronavirus without making the person sick. Researchers hope the body’s immune system will then kick in, creating the antibodies needed to fight off COVID-19.

“Messenger RNA is something the body produces on its own normally,” said Mark Mulligan, NYU’s chief of infectious diseases. “It’s kind of a new thing, but it’s really not anything that’s too different from what the body does for itself.”

But Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development at Baylor University, said that no RNA vaccine has been licensed because they’ve only worked well in laboratory animals.

“Those immune responses have not translated into…good human immune responses,” he said.

Download the NBC News app for full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

Mulligan said he is optimistic about a trial underway at NYU, but added that “the data will speak for itself.”

“This is the science,” he said. “You don’t have to have faith or belief. The answer will come from the investigations that we do.”

The vaccine is one of dozens under review in the global fight against the pandemic.