“I am interested in human immunology, so Erol gave me this opportunity to contribute to the grant in that way. We are off to an incredible start,” said Flavell.īesides the possible discoveries driving the excitement, both Laurent-Rolle and Zapata spoke about the mentorship opportunity this project presents. We are going to produce important findings, because the quality of the team and the enthusiasm of everybody. They also tapped Drew Weissman, MD, PhD, from the University of Pennsylvania, for his knowledge of mRNA vaccines. Dimopoulos’s proficiency is in mosquitoes and CRISPR technology, while Sinnis is a world expert in malaria. They also contacted two of Fikrig’s longtime collaborators, George Dimopoulos, PhD, and Photini Sinnis, MD, at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Zapata, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine (infectious diseases), for her background in human immunology. At YSM, they contacted Maudry Laurent-Rolle, MD/ PhD, assistant professor of medicine (infectious diseases), for her expertise in immunology and flaviviruses, such as dengue fever Aaron Ring, MD, PhD, associate professor of immunobiology, who developed genome screening technologies and Heidi J. So Flavell and Fikrig set out to assemble their dream team of collaborators. It'll be a game changer if we pull this off. If we could generate a vaccine against that agent that is transmitting all these viruses, then we could eliminate more diseases rather than targeting the microbe. Since then, we stayed in touch and worked together on a few grants, so he was the first person I called,” said Flavell.įikrig’s work is concentrated on creating a vaccine to stop the vector-a tick or mosquito-from spreading a disease, rather than targeting the microbe itself, which is the premise behind this new initiative, a perfect “synergy of Flavell’s interests and mine,” Fikrig said. “When we worked on Lyme disease, we generally worked with pathogens. The duo partnered in the 1990s to develop a vaccine against Lyme disease, so when the HHMI opportunity was announced, Flavell’s first call was to Fikrig.
Flavell, PhD, FRS, Sterling Professor of Immunobiology, credits his colleague Erol Fikrig, MD, Waldemar Von Zedtwitz Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases), YSM, and Professor of Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases), Yale School of Public Health (YSPH) and of Microbial Pathogenesis, YSM with the project concept. The project is funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Emerging Pathogens Initiative. Five faculty from Yale School of Medicine (YSM) are collaborating on a project focusing on creating vaccines against infectious diseases by targeting the vector, which could be a “game changer” for global health. These worldwide diseases, and others, are spread by the bite from an infected arthropod, a tick or mosquito.
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