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Gary J. Nabel | |
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Alma mater | Harvard University Brigham and Women’s Hospital |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Virology, Immunology |
Institutions | Sanofi National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Brigham and Women's Hospital Harvard Medical School University of Michigan |
Gary J. Nabel is an American virologist and immunologist. He is the President and chief executive officer of ModeX Therapeutics in Natick, Massachusetts. He was the founding director of Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.[ citation needed ]
Nabel completed his undergraduate, M.D., and Ph.D. studies at Harvard University in 1975, 1980, and 1982 respectively. He completed his dissertation research in the laboratory of immunologist Harvey Cantor, then worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of David Baltimore at the Whitehead Institute, studying regulation of HIV gene expression by the recently discovered NF-κB, a host transcription factor. [1] [2] He completed his Internal Medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Nabel joined the faculty of the University of Michigan in 1987, where he led a research lab focused on infectious diseases and cancer immunotherapy. Nabel was an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute until 1999, [3] working on transcriptional regulation of cell and viral gene expressions, as well as viral vectors in gene therapy. [4] He was the Sewell Professor of Internal Medicine and Biological Chemistry.
In 1999, Nabel was recruited to build a vaccine research program for the country at the National Institutes of Health in Washington, DC. He served as the founding director of the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases within NIH and then senior investigator with tenure. At NIH, Nabel pioneered a renaissance in vaccine development through structure-based rational vaccine design. Nabel provided overall scientific leadership of the basic, clinical, and translational research activities and guided development of novel vaccine strategies. This vaccine work spanned basic science to clinical trials, including more than 100 clinical studies in the United States, Europe, and Africa, including SARS, Chikungunya, universal influenza vaccines and Ebola vaccines eventually tested in Africa.
Nabel moved to Sanofi in 2012, and as chief scientific officer and senior vice president, he oversaw the Breakthrough Lab, which developed the first trispecific antibodies now in development for HIV. [5] He also provided oversight of the Sanofi global R&D research portfolio, helping to guide more than ten products a year into clinical efficacy trials and bringing numerous products to licensure.
Nabel is currently president and chief executive officer for ModeX Therapeutics in Natick, Massachusetts.
At the University of Michigan, Nabel’s basic research investigated gene transfer, [6] basic mechanisms of HIV gene regulation and NF-κB transcriptional control. [7] [8]
As founding director of NIH’s Vaccine Research Center, Nabel pioneered a renaissance in vaccine development through his rational approach to vaccine design. Understanding the molecular genetics and structure of viral replication, he discovered the first vaccine against Ebola, using gene-based immunization to completely protect against infection in non-human primates. [9] [10] This work provided the conceptual basis that served as a prototype for the VSV vaccine recently proven efficacious in humans. He developed the first Chikungunya virus vaccine effective in primates and advanced universal influenza vaccines of unprecedented breadth and potency. His rational approach to structure-based vaccine design led to elucidation of broadly protective human immune responses to HIV, [11] leading to the discovery of broadly neutralizing antibodies to the highly conserved CD4 binding site of HIV with his colleagues from the VRC. Recently, he created an innovative antibody platform, trispecific Abs, that show unprecedented anti-HIV breadth and potency. These antibodies have advanced into human trials.
Recognizing the threat of Ebola virus decades ago, he applied molecular immunology and virology analysis to identify genes critical to Ebola replication and assembly. Importantly, he showed that gene-based prime-boost immunization stimulates potent cellular and humoral immune responses and discovered the first protective vaccine for highly lethal Ebola virus in non-human primates, [12] defined its immune mechanism of protection, and guided its development and testing in Africa. His work contributed to international progress against emerging pathogens, having advanced novel SARS [13] and pandemic influenza. [14] [15] vaccines into clinical trials in record time, while creating promising candidates for encephalitis viruses and EBV.
At NIH’s Vaccine Research Center, he also contributed seminal advances to vaccine science neutralizing antibodies against HIV, universal influenza, [16] Ebola, [17] Chikungunya, [18] and Epstein-Barr virus. [19] He led research on viral molecular biology, protein structure, and immunotherapy, which defined modes of immune escape and led to the discovery of the broadly neutralizing antibodies to the highly conserved CD4 binding site of HIV that are now in human efficacy trials in Africa. [20]
At Sanofi, Nabel developed a novel antibody platform that can recognize three targets in a single protein, trispecific antibodies, now under evaluation for the treatment and prevention of AIDS and cancer. [21] [22]
This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources .(August 2023) |
Nabel’s honors include the Amgen Scientific Achievement Award from the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, [23] the Health and Human Services Secretary’s Award for Distinguished Service, the Geoffrey Beene Foundation Builders of Science Award from Research America, and the James Tolbert Shipley Prize for Research at Harvard Medical School. [23] He received an honorary degree from the University of London, as well as the U.S. Army Medical Department’s Order of Military Medical Merit. Nabel is an elected fellow of the Association of American Physicians, the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Nabel was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 1992 and the National Academy of Medicine in 1998.
Nabel served as the Chair of Board of Directors for the Keystone Symposia [24] from 2017 to 2019. He as a Council Delegate to the AAAS, Medical Sciences Section from 1997 to 2002, and served as the editor for the Journal of Virology from 1995 to 2005.
The wild type (WT) is the phenotype of the typical form of a species as it occurs in nature. Originally, the wild type was conceptualized as a product of the standard "normal" allele at a locus, in contrast to that produced by a non-standard, "mutant" allele. "Mutant" alleles can vary to a great extent, and even become the wild type if a genetic shift occurs within the population. Continued advancements in genetic mapping technologies have created a better understanding of how mutations occur and interact with other genes to alter phenotype. It is now appreciated that most or all gene loci exist in a variety of allelic forms, which vary in frequency throughout the geographic range of a species, and that a uniform wild type does not exist. In general, however, the most prevalent allele – i.e., the one with the highest gene frequency – is the one deemed wild type.
Influenza hemagglutinin (HA) or haemagglutinin[p] is a homotrimeric glycoprotein found on the surface of influenza viruses and is integral to its infectivity.
Envelope glycoprotein GP120 is a glycoprotein exposed on the surface of the HIV envelope. It was discovered by Professors Tun-Hou Lee and Myron "Max" Essex of the Harvard School of Public Health in 1984. The 120 in its name comes from its molecular weight of 120 kDa. Gp120 is essential for virus entry into cells as it plays a vital role in attachment to specific cell surface receptors. These receptors are DC-SIGN, Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycan and a specific interaction with the CD4 receptor, particularly on helper T-cells. Binding to CD4 induces the start of a cascade of conformational changes in gp120 and gp41 that lead to the fusion of the viral membrane with the host cell membrane. Binding to CD4 is mainly electrostatic although there are van der Waals interactions and hydrogen bonds.
Antigenic variation or antigenic alteration refers to the mechanism by which an infectious agent such as a protozoan, bacterium or virus alters the proteins or carbohydrates on its surface and thus avoids a host immune response, making it one of the mechanisms of antigenic escape. It is related to phase variation. Antigenic variation not only enables the pathogen to avoid the immune response in its current host, but also allows re-infection of previously infected hosts. Immunity to re-infection is based on recognition of the antigens carried by the pathogen, which are "remembered" by the acquired immune response. If the pathogen's dominant antigen can be altered, the pathogen can then evade the host's acquired immune system. Antigenic variation can occur by altering a variety of surface molecules including proteins and carbohydrates. Antigenic variation can result from gene conversion, site-specific DNA inversions, hypermutation, or recombination of sequence cassettes. The result is that even a clonal population of pathogens expresses a heterogeneous phenotype. Many of the proteins known to show antigenic or phase variation are related to virulence.
Antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE), sometimes less precisely called immune enhancement or disease enhancement, is a phenomenon in which binding of a virus to suboptimal antibodies enhances its entry into host cells, followed by its replication. The suboptimal antibodies can result from natural infection or from vaccination. ADE may cause enhanced respiratory disease, but is not limited to respiratory disease. It has been observed in HIV, RSV, and Dengue virus and is monitored for in vaccine development.
Long-term nonprogressors (LTNPs), are individuals infected with HIV, who maintain a CD4 count greater than 500 without antiretroviral therapy with a detectable viral load. Many of these patients have been HIV positive for 30 years without progressing to the point of needing to take medication in order not to develop AIDS. They have been the subject of a great deal of research, since an understanding of their ability to control HIV infection may lead to the development of immune therapies or a therapeutic vaccine. The classification "Long-term non-progressor" is not permanent, because some patients in this category have gone on to develop AIDS.
The Vaccine Research Center (VRC), is an intramural division of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The mission of the VRC is to discover and develop both vaccines and antibody-based products that target infectious diseases.
2F5 is a broadly neutralizing human monoclonal antibody (mAb) that has been shown to bind to and neutralize HIV-1 in vitro, making it a potential candidate for use in vaccine synthesis. 2F5 recognizes an epitope in the membrane-proximal external region (MPER) of HIV-1 gp41. 2F5 then binds to this epitope and its constant region interacts with the viral lipid membrane, which neutralizes the virus.
A neutralizing antibody (NAb) is an antibody that defends a cell from a pathogen or infectious particle by neutralizing any effect it has biologically. Neutralization renders the particle no longer infectious or pathogenic. Neutralizing antibodies are part of the humoral response of the adaptive immune system against viruses, bacteria and microbial toxin. By binding specifically to surface structures (antigen) on an infectious particle, neutralizing antibodies prevent the particle from interacting with its host cells it might infect and destroy.
Ebola viral protein 24 (eVP24) is considered a multifunctional secondary matrix protein present in viral particles. The broad roles eVP24 performs involve the formation of fully functional and infectious viral particles, promotion of filamentous nucleocapsid formation, mediation of host responses to infection, and suppression of the host innate immune system. It has been noted that eVP24 function can overlap with that of two other viral proteins; eVP40 matrix protein which functions in virus budding, and eVP35 which is also associated with immune suppression.
A universal flu vaccine would be a flu vaccine effective against all human-adapted strains of influenza A and influenza B regardless of the virus sub type, or any antigenic drift or antigenic shift. Hence it should not require modification from year to year in order to keep up with changes in the influenza virus. As of 2024 no universal flu vaccine had been successfully developed, however several candidate vaccines were in development, with some undergoing early stage clinical trial.
Susan Zolla-Pazner is an American research scientist who is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and the Department of Microbiology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and a guest investigator in the Laboratory of Molecular Immunology at The Rockefeller University, both in New York City. Zolla-Pazner's work has focused on how the immune system responds to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and, in particular, how antibodies against the viral envelope develop in the course of infection.
A Zika virus vaccine is designed to prevent the symptoms and complications of Zika virus infection in humans. As Zika virus infection of pregnant women may result in congenital defects in the newborn, the vaccine will attempt to protect against congenital Zika syndrome during the current or any future outbreak. As of April 2019, no vaccines have been approved for clinical use, however a number of vaccines are currently in clinical trials. The goal of a Zika virus vaccine is to produce specific antibodies against the Zika virus to prevent infection and severe disease. The challenges in developing a safe and effective vaccine include limiting side effects such as Guillain-Barré syndrome, a potential consequence of Zika virus infection. Additionally, as dengue virus is closely related to Zika virus, the vaccine needs to minimize the possibility of antibody-dependent enhancement of dengue virus infection.
Intrastructural help (ISH) is where T and B cells cooperate to help or suppress an immune response gene. ISH has proven effective for the treatment of influenza, rabies related lyssavirus, hepatitis B, and the HIV virus. This process was used in 1979 to observe that T cells specific to the influenza virus could promote the stimulation of hemagglutinin specific B cells and elicit an effective humoral immune response. It was later applied to the lyssavirus and was shown to protect raccoons from lethal challenge. The ISH principle is especially beneficial because relatively invariable structural antigens can be used for the priming of T-cells to induce humoral immune response against variable surface antigens. Thus, the approach has also transferred well for the treatment of hepatitis B and HIV.
Bette Korber is an American computational biologist focusing on the molecular biology and population genetics of the HIV virus that causes infection and eventually AIDS. She has contributed heavily to efforts to obtain an effective HIV vaccine. She created a database at Los Alamos National Laboratory that has enabled her to design novel mosaic HIV vaccines, one of which is currently in human testing in Africa. The database contains thousands of HIV genome sequences and related data.
Nelson L. Michael is an American infectious disease researcher. He has served for nearly 30 years in the United States Army and been directly involved with significant advancements in understanding the pathology of and vaccine development for diseases like HIV, Zika, Ebola and more. Much of his career has been spent at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.
Nancy Jean Sullivan is an American cell biologist, virologist, and immunologist. She has served as the director of the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL) at Boston University since December 2022. Previously, she was chief of the Biodefense Research Section at the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) in the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
Reporter virus particles (RVPs) are replication-incompetent virus particles engineered to express one or more reporter genes upon infecting susceptible cells. Since the RVP genome lacks genes essential for viral replication, RVPs are capable of only a single round of infection. Thus they are safe to work with under BSL-2 conditions, enabling the study of highly pathogenic viruses using standard laboratory facilities. Expression of a reporter such as luciferase can provide a quantitative readout of infection. With proper design and quality control, RVPs remain stable under common assay conditions and yield reproducible results that correlate with those obtained from live virus. These qualities make RVPs a safer and faster alternative to plaque assays, and especially well-suited for high-throughput applications. RVPs offer flexibility for different uses, as they are antigenically identical to wild-type virus, and can be engineered with various proteins or express mutant envelopes to study infectivity or antigenicity.
A viral vector vaccine is a vaccine that uses a viral vector to deliver genetic material (DNA) that can be transcribed by the recipient's host cells as mRNA coding for a desired protein, or antigen, to elicit an immune response. As of April 2021, six viral vector vaccines, four COVID-19 vaccines and two Ebola vaccines, have been authorized for use in humans.
John R. Mascola is an American physician-scientist, immunologist and infectious disease specialist. He was the director of the Vaccine Research Center (VRC), part of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH). He also served as a principal advisor to Anthony Fauci, director of NIAID, on vaccines and biomedical research affairs. Mascola is the current Chief Scientific Officer for ModeX Therapeutics.
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