Two research teams led by Dr. David Reeve and Dr. Margaret Ackerman from Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine and Thayer School of Engineering will be among the recipients of grants from the Biden-Harris Administration’s Advanced Research in Health Program (ARPA). It will be. -H) Support innovation in pandemic preparedness and vaccine generation.
ARPA-H is a research funding agency that supports innovative biomedical and health breakthroughs from the molecular to the societal level. The agency launched a research program, Antigens with Predicted Broad Viral Effects by Computational Experiments (APECx), in October 2023 as part of its goal to eliminate viruses as future health threats.
Dr. Margaret Ackerman. Thayer School of Engineering. Photo credit: John Sherman
As we have seen with COVID-19, viruses remain a significant threat to global health and safety, causing pandemics, chronic diseases, and cancer. However, current methods of developing vaccines and therapeutics are slow and expensive, in part due to an incomplete understanding of the structure and function of viral proteins. This often requires long-term studies that target viruses individually.
To address these issues, the APECx program will focus on the effective use of computer models in vaccine design. We aim to transform vaccine antigen discovery by developing a toolkit to design broadly effective antigens against entire virus families and demonstrating their accuracy by evaluating candidate vaccine antigens in clinical trials.
ARPA-H announced grants that include some of the nation’s largest academic centers. One consortium is headquartered at the Protein Design Institute at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, Washington, and also includes the Reeve Institute. La Jolla Institute for Immunology in La Jolla, California, which also includes the Ackerman Institute.
“The idea behind the ARPA-H mechanism is very unique,” said Leib, a professor and professor of microbiology and immunology at Geisel University, who says that the idea behind the ARPA-H mechanism is that it only causes herpes, sexually transmitted infections, and neonatal infections. Instead, we plan to focus on herpes simplex virus. —Recently, a connection with neurodegeneration and Alzheimer’s disease has been pointed out.
Dr. David Reeve. Geisel School of Medicine. Photo credit: Rob Strong
“Instead of competing with each other, we’re going to help each other,” Reeve said. The consortium will work to bring the new vaccine into Phase I clinical trials within three years. “Although we are all focused on different viruses, we will all work toward the same goal: building a new national platform for pandemic preparedness and vaccine generation.”
To achieve its goals, the APECx program focuses on three areas: high-throughput biochemical analysis and protein engineering, protein modeling toolkit development for antigen design, and translational candidate development and clinical evaluation.
“Both Dartmouth groups are excited to help our team move toward developing vaccines for viral infections, where standard approaches have proven difficult,” said Ackerman, professor of engineering at Dartmouth College. “There is,” he said.
“Contributing to the evaluation of cutting-edge strategies to prevent one infectious disease is exciting enough, but we are expanding that contribution by working with the APECx team to develop new approaches that can be applied more broadly. Students and researchers alike are encouraged to come to our campus. ”
In addition to his work in the lab and his leadership role at Geisel, Leib is leveraging Dartmouth’s expertise in this area to help establish APECx’s Health Equity Committee.
“There’s no point in having a great vaccine if people won’t get it or can’t afford it,” he says. “This will help address important issues such as cost, equitable distribution, and vaccine hesitancy. So Dartmouth is already well-represented within the consortium, but as the project progresses we will actually The potential for increased involvement is incredibly exciting.”
Doctors. Ackerman and Reeve are members of the Dartmouth International Vaccine Initiative (DIVI), a multidisciplinary vaccine organization spanning Geisel, Thayer, Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth Health, and Dartmouth College.
About Geisel School of Medicine
Founded in 1797, Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine strives to improve the lives of our communities through excellence in learning, discovery, and healing. Geisel School of Medicine is known for its leadership in medical education, health policy and delivery science, biomedical research, global health, and creating innovations that improve lives around the world. As one of America’s premier medical schools, Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine is committed to developing a new generation of diverse leaders who will help solve health care’s most vexing challenges.
About Dartmouth Engineering
Founded in 1867, Dartmouth’s Thayer School of Engineering is dedicated to making the world a better place through human-centered, high-impact research and education. Dartmouth Engineering serves as a hub of scholarship and innovation, developing the next generation of leaders through undergraduate and graduate degree programs that foster learning and discovery both within and across disciplines. Home to the nation’s first PhD innovation program, Dartmouth Engineering is a leader in preparing engineers with both the technical expertise and entrepreneurial spirit to tackle the most pressing problems of our time. For more information, visit engineering.dartmouth.edu. TwitterFacebook, and Instagram (@thayerschool).
