September 12, 2019

New PLOS Pathogens Publication

A collaboration between MSTP students Nicole Naiman (E-13), Theodore Gobillot (E-14), and Kate Dusenbury (E-14) was published in February 2019 in PLOS Pathogens. This publication explores HIV antibodies that mediate killing of infected cells. Eliciting an antibody response to the HIV Envelope protein is thought to be the most likely path to an effective vaccine, and there is evidence that both neutralizing and non-neutralizing HIV-specific antibodies can contribute to protection. Their findings show that inducing certain types of antibodies following vaccination may represent a more straightforward path to generating a consistent, functional response to a more conserved portion of the HIV envelope protein.