Discovery Hubs & Network

Novel Adjuvant Discovery

As an extension of the Center for Human Systems Immunology, we formed with the Institute for Protein Design (IPD) at the University of Washington and Calibr at the Scripps Research Institute a collaborative discovery hub and network to accelerate novel adjuvant discovery. 

We are leveraging technologies and systems developed in our Center to build a platform for the discovery and development of vaccine candidates, antigenic constructs, compounds with adjuvant activity, and other immunogens that can quickly identify lead candidates for successful translation to the human clinical setting. 

Our platform is built upon the human tonsil organoid system for high throughput screening of novel immunogens and adjuvants. This project is led by Prof. Mark Davis, with support by Prof. Pulendran (in vivo studies in NHP and mouse models) and Prof. Boyd (advanced profiling of antibody response).

Our objectives are:

  1. To benchmark current tonsil organoid system (TOS), adapt to screening platform, and develop prototypes of next-generation systems.

  2. To develop product profile target readouts and tailored assays to explore mechanism of lead candidates.

  3. To utilize assays in TOS and murine systems to narrow candidates and elucidate mechanism to prepare final candidates for in vivo NHP pre-clinical trials.

     

Schematic presentation of Tonsil Organoid System. 
Image courtesy of Lisa Wager, PhD, Research Scientist, Davis Lab, Stanford