Ofer Levy (M.D., Ph.D., Boston Children’s Hospital and Scientific Councilor , Pathology/Translational Biology, IEIIS) was awarded one of seven NIH contracts for vaccine adjuvant discovery.
Dr. Levy’s program, entitled will proceed in 4 overlapping stages: 1) identification of novel adjuvant candidates from a library of >600,000 small molecules using a high-throughput screen of THP-1 cells expressing an NF-κB luciferase reporter followed by secondary screens with neonatal, adult and elderly human primary mononuclear cells and dendritic cells to confirm lead compounds; 2) identification of mechanism of action of novel adjuvant candidates; 3) optimization of lead adjuvants and preparation of aqueous, Alum liposomal, and polymersome nanoparticle-encapsulated formulations; and 4) testing of lead formulations containing adjuvant and influenza vaccinal antigen in mice and non-human primates in vivo and a human tissue construct platform in vitro.
In addition to Dr. Levy and Boston Children’s Hospital, key personnel and institutional resources will include: ADP Project Manager David J. Dowling, Ph.D., Guzman Sanchez-Schmitz, Ph.D., Hanno Steen, Ph.D., and Al Ozonoff, Ph.D. (BCH); Caroline Shamu, Ph.D. (The Institute of Chemistry and Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School); Lindsay Baden, M.D. (Brigham & Women’s Hospital); Nathanael Gray, Ph.D. (Medicinal Chemistry Core at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute); Sirano Dhe-Pagnon, Ph.D. (Structural Biology Facility, DFCI): Michael Cameron, Ph.D. (Scripps Research Institute); Steve Reed Ph.D. (The Infectious Disease Research Institute); Jeffrey A. Hubbell, Director (École Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne and University of Chicago); and Andrew Lackner Ph.D. (Tulane National Primate Research Center).