NIH R01 · 2024
Structural interrogation of vaccine- and infection-induced B cell responses
Immunodominance, the observation that epitopes on an antigen are not “born equal”, poses a major challenge for next-generation vaccines against rapidly evolving pathogens. An underlying premise of this proposal is that in order to engage in rational immunogen design for next-generation vaccines, we first need to answer a fundamental question in immunology -- namely how to define immunodominance in biochemical and structural terms. Rather than relying on animal models that could complicate the direct translation to human health, we will directly sample both the circulating (plasmablasts and memory B cells) and tissue-resident (germinal center) B cells in humans. First, we will use structural…
From the public funding record at NIH RePORTER. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.