Leaders of the newly-established San Antonio Partnership for Precision Therapeutics (SA PPT) have awarded the partnership’s first research grant. A seven-person team researching sepsis-induced organ failure will receive $200,000 in funding over two years. The award’s purpose is to advance research and breakthroughs in precision therapeutics, which is the development of drug therapies for specific populations based on genetics, lifestyle and environment.

The extensive genetic variability in seasonal and potentially pandemic influenza strains necessitates new vaccine strategies that can focus the immune response on generating protective antibodies against conserved targets such as regions within the influenza neuraminidase protein. We have demonstrated that seasonal immunization stimulates neuraminidase specific antibodies in humans that are broad and potent in their protection from influenza when tested in animals.

This project will characterize the safety, immunogenicity and protective efficacy of selected rLCMV/ts in mice.This contract involves virulence, immunogenecity and protective efficacy studies.

The Major goal is to test efficacy of novel monoclonal therapeutic in the Sudan virus NHP Model.

We will test the hypothesis that neonatal hyperoxia enhances sensitivity to IAV infection by inducing epigenetic changes in proliferating AEC2s that are maintained even when they become AEC1s and these changes are mediated by the persistent expression of Ki67. Understanding how neonatal hyperoxia shapes how AECs respond to IAV infection is important because the scientific discoveries will stimulate development of novel therapies designed to improve the health of people born preterm.

The goal of the project is to understand the pathways operative in sepsis and the necessity for improved therapies. Ee will develop a small molecule screening program using in silico drug design strategies based on the crystal and CryoEM structure of MCU-ligand interaction for identification and synthesis of novel small molecules that could be further tested for next generation MCU regulators.

The overall goal of this NYICE project is to determine the natural history of how influenza B virus (IBV) broadly neutralizing human monoclonal antibodies (BNhmAbs) are induced in response to seasonal vaccination and their ability to prevent IBV infection and transmission, and their mechanism of action. This knowledge will provide the basis for the development of immunotherapeutics to fill the existing gap for treatments against IBV.

Morbidity and mortality associated with human mammarenavirus infections involve a failure of the host's innate immune response to restrict virus multiplication at early stages of infection, thus compromising the initiation of an effective innate and adaptive immune response to control and eliminate the virus. Studies in this application will provide a better understanding of arenavirus-host innate defense interactions, which can facilitate the development of novel strategies to combat human pathogenic mammarenaviruses.

The overall goal of this application is to develop a new, more effective live-attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) capable of eliciting broadly cross-protective immune responses to conserved internal viral proteins - thereby providing the basis for a universal influenza vaccine.

We propose to study the efficiency (sensitivity/specificity) of a novel sustainable, easy-to-use diagnostic test to monitor drug resistant tuberculosis treatment using non-invasive specimens (i.e. sputum). We will focus in Mozambique, where TB is a major health issue and is under-reported due to lack of widely available diagnosis.