AAV vectored immunoprophylaxis for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases
Sarah Wootton, PhD
Department of Pathobiology, OVC
University of Guelph
The overarching goal of research in Dr. Wootton’s lab is to engineer viral therapies to prevent, treat or cure illnesses including infectious diseases, cancer, and monogenic disorders of the lung. One of her core research areas focuses on adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors. Work in her lab centers on developing a robust platform for “Vectored Immunoprophylaxis” or VIP, in which AAV vectors are used to deliver broadly neutralizing monoclonal antibody (mAb) genes to mediate robust and prolonged protection from pathogens for which the human population has no pre-existing or vaccine-induced immunity and which pose a significant threat to public health, requiring rapid and cost-effective countermeasures. With collaborators in the Special Pathogens Division at the National Microbiology Lab (NML), she has worked on developing a cocktail of AAV-mAbs to improve upon passive mAb transfer for Ebola virus, Marburg virus and now, SARS-CoV-2 treatment and prevention. She and her colleagues have received funding to develop a broadly neutralizing mAb cocktail able to protect against all filovirus infections in a single formulation. Recently, Dr. Wootton has begun collaborating with colleagues at Vanderbilt Vaccine Center to reformulate their recently published Respiratory Syncytical virus and influenza virus mAbs into AAV vectors and begun to explore AAV-VIP for the prevention of respiratory infections.
Thursday, April 29, 2021 at 12:00 p.m.
Meeting URL: https://illinois.zoom.us/j/84651280080?pwd=YzJrT2JQVWxkSDhHSzdVLzFaWitCUT09
For more information contact the Department of Pathobiology at 217-333-2449, email klp68@illinois.edu.
