Vaccine discovery and development requires intimate knowledge of the immune responses elicited by experimental immunization during clinical evaluation. The Vaccine Immunology Program (VIP) has assembled functional groups that engage in basic and translational B cell immunobiology research (including high throughput automated immunoglobulin and transcriptome analyses) in addition to standardized end-point analyses for clinical trials. The goal was to bring these functional groups under a single program in order to facilitate the coordinated development and deployment of state-of-the-art technologies and analyses, which can be utilized effectively for vaccine discovery, early development and testing of clinical products.

In recent years, the VIP-research group has focused upon in-depth analyses of VRC influenza vaccine trials, specifically the complex immunobiology characterizing the B cells recognizing influenza HA-stem region.  For example, from an influenza group 1 H5N1 vaccine trial the VIP-research team have described common immunoglobulin lineages that consistently and reproducibly occur within human populations and are capable of neutralizing group 1 and 2 influenza strains by targeting the HA-stem region. 

Also, within the VIP reside both the translational and clinical testing laboratories (including Vaccine Immunology Testing Laboratory (VITL) which are responsible for the development, implementation and eventual deployment of qualified virus neutralization, humoral and cellular analyses appropriate for prospective licensure of VRC-NIAID vaccines. In addition, within the Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery (CAVD), funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Dr. McDermott is an investigator in the Comprehensive Cellular- Vaccine Immune-Monitoring Corsortium (CC-VIMC) led by Dr Koup.

In this role, the VIP-translational research team has applied novel B cell repertoire analyses designed to specifically analyze the next generation of HIV vaccine strategies.  The VIP laboratories are currently preparing for the analyses of the first in-person clinical trial (in collaboration with CAVD and IAVI) of immunogens aimed at driving HIV CD4bs specific B lineages to ultimately elicit highly mutated neutralizing VRC01-class antibodies.

In conclusion, VIP continually extends its capabilities and technologies in order to better understand the immune response elicited by products developed at the VRC-NIAID-NIH and beyond.  Overall the goal of the Program is to improve the understanding of T- and B-cell immunobiology to further efficacious vaccination strategies directed towards HIV, Influenza and other potentially preventable diseases.

Dr. Adrian McDermott has been an experimental virologist and immunologist for over 25 years.  He has gained experience in the fields of immunogenetics, vaccinology and infectious disease immunology. He has been constantly fascinated in the hierarchy of immune responses associated with protection from viral disease and how this can be translated into vaccine design, particularly for HIV and influenza. During his tenure at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) he led novel work in pre-clinical immunology, directed a large consortium dedicated to the investigation of factors associated with protection elicited by live attenuated SIVs, identified, designed and evaluated unique replicating vector platforms for delivery of T and B cell immunogens. He also extended his post-doctoral work with Dr. David Watkins, which developed the low dose-multiple exposure SIV NHP challenge model for the improved assessment of vaccines in the face of virus challenge. This work has been subsequently standardized and widely employed, as the ‘SIV acquisition model’, which allows the evaluation of HIV vaccine strategies in terms of ‘protection from multiple exposures’ in the NHP.  Since arriving at the Vaccine Research Center (VRC)-NIH in 2011, Dr. McDermott has directed the Immunology Core Laboratory and currently leads a multi-disciplinary program that performs basic vaccine discovery B cell research through to the assessment and clinical evaluation of lead vaccine candidates.  His group has published in-depth analyses of influenza and HIV vaccine strategies, which are aimed at the discovery and development of a safe, effective vaccines.

Corrigan AR, Duan H, Cheng C, Gonelli CA, Ou L, Xu K, DeMouth ME, Geng H, Narpala S, O'Connell S, Zhang B, Zhou T, Basappa M, Boyington JC, Chen SJ, O'Dell S, Pegu A, Stephens T, Tsybovsky Y, van Schooten J, Todd JP, Wang S; VRC Production Program, Doria-Rose NA, Foulds KE, Koup RA, McDermott AB, van Gils MJ, Kwong PD, Mascola JR. Fusion peptide priming reduces immune responses to HIV-1 envelope trimer base. Cell Rep. 2021 Apr 6;35(1):108937.

Doria-Rose N, Suthar MS, Makowski M, O'Connell S, McDermott AB, Flach B, Ledgerwood JE, Mascola JR, Graham BS, Lin BC, O'Dell S, Schmidt SD, Widge AT, Edara VV, Anderson EJ, Lai L, Floyd K, Rouphael NG, Zarnitsyna V, Roberts PC, Makhene M, Buchanan W, Luke CJ, Beigel JH, Jackson LA, Neuzil KM, Bennett H, Leav B, Albert J, Kunwar P; mRNA-1273 Study Group. Antibody Persistence through 6 Months after the Second Dose of mRNA-1273 Vaccine for Covid-19. N Engl J Med. 2021 Apr 6. doi: 10.1056/NEJMc2103916.

Hopp CS, Sekar P, Diouf A, Miura K, Boswell K, Skinner J, Tipton CM, Peterson ME, Chambers MJ, Andrews S, Lu J, Tan J, Li S, Doumbo S, Kayentao K, Ongoiba A, Traore B, Portugal S, Sun PD, Long C, Koup RA, Long EO, McDermott AB, Crompton PD. Plasmodium falciparum-specific IgM B cells dominate in children, expand with malaria, and produce functional IgM. J Exp Med. 2021 Apr 5;218(4):e20200901.

Creanga A, Gillespie RA, Fisher BE, Andrews SF, Lederhofer J, Yap C, Hatch L, Stephens T, Tsybovsky Y, Crank MC, Ledgerwood JE, McDermott AB, Mascola JR, Graham BS, Kanekiyo M. A comprehensive influenza reporter virus panel for high-throughput deep profiling of neutralizing antibodies. Nat Commun. 2021 Mar 19;12(1):1722.

Majdoubi A, Michalski C, O'Connell SE, Dada S, Narpala SR, Gelinas JP, Mehta D, Cheung C, Winkler DF, Basappa M, Liu AC, Görges M, Barakauskas VE, Irvine MA, Mehalko J, Esposito D, Sekirov I, Jassem AN, Goldfarb DM, Pelech S, Douek DC, McDermott AB, Lavoie PM. A majority of uninfected adults show pre-existing antibody reactivity against SARS-CoV-2. JCI Insight. 2021 Mar 15;146316.

Widge AT, Rouphael NG, Jackson LA, Anderson EJ, Roberts PC, Makhene M, Chappell JD, Denison MR, Stevens LJ, Pruijssers AJ, McDermott AB, Flach B, Lin BC, Doria-Rose NA, O'Dell S, Schmidt SD, Neuzil KM, Bennett H, Leav B, Makowski M, Albert J, Cross K, Edara VV, Floyd K, Suthar MS, Buchanan W, Luke CJ, Ledgerwood JE, Mascola JR, Graham BS, Beigel JH; mRNA-1273 Study Group. Durability of Responses after SARS-CoV-2 mRNA-1273 Vaccination. N Engl J Med. 2021 Jan 7;384(1):80-82.

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The Genome Analysis Core (TGAC), within the Human Immunology Section fulfills many of the specialist sequencing needs of the Vaccine Research Center. The VRC is designing, producing and testing candidate immunogens aimed at eliciting neutralizing antibodies against a number of human pathogens including HIV, Malaria, Influenza, RSV and SARS-CoV-2. At the core of this effort lies the requirement to elicit antibodies that use particular IgH and IgL chain gene pairs. For evaluation of vaccine candidates, the evolution of such antibodies, and thus the effectiveness of the vaccine, needs to be monitored using a variety of molecular techniques that culminate in single-cell NGS of pathogen-specific B cell Ig genes. In addition, passive antibody applications necessarily depend on the identification and sequencing of neutralizing pathogen-specific antibodies in infected and/or convalescent people. Similarly, vaccines being developed by the VRC that aim to elicit T cell immunity, such as those against TB, malaria and cancer, require analysis at the level of TCR sequences.  To complement these studies of immune adaptive receptor use, the VRC also investigates host genomic associations with vaccine responses and disease progression, the microbiome, pathogen sequence diversity within and among infected people, and host cellular reservoirs of pathogens. To achieve these goals the TGAC has developed a broad portfolio of next-generation sequencing methodologies. These assays are performed on samples from multiple species including humans, NHP and various rodents.

Dr. Douek studied medicine at the Universities of Oxford and London, receiving academic scholarships from both institutions. He then practiced internal medicine and became a Member of the Royal College of Physicians (London) in 1993. He was awarded a Wellcome Trust Clinical Graduate Training Fellowship to pursue a Ph.D. in immunology at the University of London, which he earned in 1997. He completed his postdoctoral work at the Rockefeller University and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, where he was named assistant professor in infectious diseases (2000). Dr. Douek was appointed to a tenure-track position in the VRC Laboratory of Immunology in November 2000. He was converted to a tenured senior investigator position in February 2007, the year in which he was presented with the World AIDS Day Award. He serves as chief of the Human Immunology Section at the VRC. He initiated the establishment of the Genome Analysis Core and serves as its Chief.​​

Dr. Richard Herbert is the research veterinarian for the NIAID nonhuman primates held at the National Institutes of Health Animal Center (NIHAC) in Poolesville, Maryland. Dr. Herbert is a graduate of Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine (1993). He worked as a clinical practitioner and owner of a large animal practice in Maryland for eight years. His career in laboratory animal medicine started in 2001, working as a contract clinical veterinarian. In 2003, Dr. Herbert obtained a government position working with the Division of Veterinary Resources as a clinical veterinarian at the NIHAC and then advanced from this position to become facility veterinarian and section chief in 2007. In 2009, he joined NIAID to provide veterinary support to research animals including nonhuman primates, cattle, sheep, pigs, and horses. His research interests include surgical and medical management of nonhuman primates on infectious disease and aging studies.

• Endoscoping biopsies (e.g., gastric, jejunal)
• Surgical procedures (e.g., exploratory, lymph node biopsies, VAP placement)
• Necropsy (complete tissue collection and gross evaluations)
• Study design and model selection

Purcell RH, Emgle RE, Govindarajan S, Herbert R, St Claire M, Elkins WR, Cook A, Shaver C, Beauregard M. Pathobiology of hepatitis E: lessons learned from primate models. Emerg Microbes Infect. 2013(2):e9.

Mattison JA, Roth GS, Beasley TM, Tilmont EM, Handy AM, Herbert RL, Longo DL, Allison DB, Young JE, Bryant M, Barnard D, Ward WF, Qi W, Ingram DK, de Cabo R. Impact of caloric restriction on health and survival in rhesus monkeys from the NIA study. Nature. 2012 Sep 13;489(7415):318-21.

Vinton C, Klatt NR, Harris LD, Briant JA, Sanders-Beer BE, Herbert R, Woodward R, Silvestri G, Pandrea I, Apetrei C, Hirsch VM, Brenchley JM. CD4-like immunological function by CD4- T cells in multiple natural hosts of simian immunodeficiency virus.J Virol. 2011 Sep;85(17):8702-8.