Structure-Based Vaccine Antigen Design
Jason McLellan, Ph.D.
Professor
Robert A. Welch Chair in Chemistry
The University of Texas at Austin, Department of Molecular Biology
Dr. Jason McLellan researches viral and bacterial proteins, and his work to understand how these proteins are structured and how they function has factored into the development of vaccines and potential treatments for deadly pathogens that have impacted the lives of billions of people. He is one of the inventors of a way to engineer a key protein in coronaviruses for use in vaccines. The technology his team developed can be found in many leading vaccines against COVID-19 (Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and Novavax). McLellan and his colleagues also designed key proteins that form the basis of several vaccines now in clinical trials against the coronavirus, as well as separate proteins used in vaccines against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a virus especially dangerous for young children and seniors.
He is the winner of multiple scientific awards, including the Edith and Peter O'Donnell Award in Medicine from TAMEST (The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas), Golden Goose Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the William Prusoff Memorial Award from the International Society for Antiviral Research and the Viruses Young Investigator in Virology Prize, among others. His research and expertise have been featured in multiple media outlets including CNN, Fox News, USA Today, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post and National Geographic. Dr. McLellan earned a B.S. in chemistry with an emphasis in biochemistry from Wayne State University and his Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He conducted his postdoctoral research at the National Institutes of Health's Vaccine Research Center. After serving on the faculty at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth in the Department of Biochemistry for five years, he moved his laboratory to the University of Texas at Austin in 2018, where he serves as a tenured faculty member and associate chair for graduate education in the Department of Molecular Biosciences.
Summary
Structure-based vaccine design aims to exploit knowledge of an antigen's architecture to stabilize it in a vulnerable conformation and elicit protective antibodies against one or more epitopes. Viral fusion proteins are excellent targets for structure-based vaccine design because they fold into several distinct conformations required to promote viral entry and membrane fusion. During this talk, the general principles of structure-based vaccine design and their application to the development of vaccine antigens for licensed RSV and COVID-19 vaccines will be discussed. Recent results from the McLellan lab regarding the application of this technology to other viral pathogens will also be presented.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand the fundamentals of structure-based vaccine design: Participants will be able to explain how knowledge of an antigen's structure can be utilized to design vaccine antigens that are stabilized in specific conformations and elicit protective antibodies.
- Explore the role of viral fusion proteins in vaccine development: Attendees will gain insights into why viral fusion proteins are prime targets for structure-based vaccine design, focusing on their conformational changes during viral entry and membrane fusion.
- Analyze case studies of licensed vaccines (RSV and COVID-19): Professionals will evaluate how structure-based design principles have been applied in the development of licensed vaccines for RSV and COVID-19.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, October 9, 2024