| Passive Immunotherapeutics |
| Chair: Arturo Casadevall (Albert Einstein College of Medicine) |
Establish and optimize new technologies for producing high affinity animal and humanized neutralizing monoclonal antibodies for passive administration. Identify requirements for antibody-mediated immunity to establish broad principles applicable to multiple systems. |
| Projects: |
- Optimization of mAbs to staphylococcal enterotoxin B for treatment: Bettina Fries (Albert Einstein College of Medicine)
- Development of new passive immunization strategies for anthrax: Arturo Casadevall (Albert Einstein College of Medicine)
- Development of mAb therapeutics against biothreat and emerging disease agents: Thomas Briese (Columbia University)
- Development of mAb immunotherapy for genetically modified plague: James Bliska (Stony Brook University)
Inter-project collaborators
- Rafi Ahmed (Emory University)
- Moonsoo Jin (Cornell University)
- Matteo Porotto (Cornell University)
- Jeffrey Ravetch (Rockefeller University)
- Patrick Wilson (University of Chicago)
|
| Vaccines |
| Chair: John Rose (Yale University) |
Establish, characterize and optimize in parallel an array of viral and bacterial vectors as vaccine platforms against biothreat and emerging infectious agents for which vaccines or therapeutics are unavailable. |
| Projects: |
- Live recombinant newcastle disease virus as vaccine platform against high priority biodefense pathogens: Peter Palese (Mount Sinai School of Medicine)
- Development of novel vaccines for high priority pathogens: John Rose (Yale University)
|
| Diagnostic and Pathogen Discovery |
| Chair: W. Ian Lipkin (Columbia University) |
| Develop state-of-the-art technologies that permit identification of known and unknown biological agents. Optimize diagnostic technologies to permit widespread clinical availability. |
| Projects: |
- Pathogen discovery in emerging infectious diseases: W. Ian Lipkin (Columbia University)
- Development of a point-of-care platform for differential diagnosis of emerging infectious diseases and biothreat agents: Gustavo Palacios (Columbia University) and Christina Egan (Wadsworth Center)
|
| Therapeutics |
| Chair: Charles Rice (The Rockefeller University) |
| Explore and target pathogen entry mechanisms and redirected host cell processes for the discovery and development of broad-spectrum anti-infectives. |
| Projects: |
- Mechanism and inhibition of dengue and chikungunya virus membrane fusion proteins: Margaret Kielian (Albert Einstein College of Medicine)
- A novel antiviral platform: untimely activation of viral fusion mechanisms will prevent viral entry: Anne Moscona (Cornell University)
|
| Innate Immunity |
Chair: Adolfo Garcia-Sastre (Mount Sinai School of Medicine) |
| Advance knowledge of the inter-relationship between innate immunity and viral disease outcome. Explore innate immunity pathways as therapeutic targets or enhancers for the treatment of biodefense and emerging disease agents. |
| Projects: |
- Filovirus inhibitors of interferon signaling: virulence factors and drug targets: Christopher Basler (Mount Sinai School of Medicine)
- Inhibition of innate immunity by hemorrhagic fever arboviruses: Adolfo Garcia-Sastre (Mount Sinai School of Medicine)
|
| Microbial Pathogenesis |
| Chair: Jorge Benach (Stony Brook University) |
Discover mechanisms underlying virulence in understudied biodefense pathogens through the use of large-scale molecular and cell biological methods. |
| Projects: |
- A genomics based strategy for the discovery and study of new signaling systems and toxins used by relevant bacterial pathogens: Sean Brady (The Rockefeller University)
- Pathogenic mechanisms of Coxiella burnetti: Craig Roy (Yale University)
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