Harriet Robinson

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Harriet Latham Robinson
Alma mater Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD)
Swarthmore College (BA)
Scientific career
FieldsMolecular Biology, Virology, Vaccinology
Institutions Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research

University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School

Emory University

Contents

GeoVax, Inc.
Doctoral advisor James E. Darnell Jr

Harriet Latham Robinson is an American vaccine researcher who is founder and Chief Scientific Officer Emeritus at GeoVax. She is the former Chief of Microbiology and Immunology at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Microbiology at Emory University. Her research considered HIV vaccine development. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Early life and education

Robinson (nee Latham) born in 1938, was an undergraduate student at Swarthmore College. As a college graduate, she visited the Soviet Union as a Russian-English speaking guide for the 1959 cultural exchange exhibition, USA. [1] Her doctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology addressed the movement of newly synthesized messenger RNA in HeLa cells. [2] Post doctoral studies were at the University of California, Berkeley where she acquired the avian leukosis sarcoma virus model for retroviruse-induced cancers. [3]

Research and career

In 1977, she joined the Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research where her work using avian leukosis viruses in chickens was instrumental in demonstrating cancer induction by insertional mutagenesis. [3] This work, a collaborative endeavor with the laboratories of Susan Astrin and John Coffin, led to her appointment in 1998 as Professor of Pathology at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. The work with avian leukosis sarcoma viruses also provided the foundation for her pioneering studies on recombinant DNA vaccines. [1] [4] [5] Working with the laboratory of Bernie Moss, she combined her novel DNA vaccines with boosts of recombinant poxvirus vaccines to raise high levels of targeted vaccine responses. [3] In 1999, She moved to the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University to facilitate testing her candidate HIV vaccines in non-human primate models. [4]

Robinson co-founded GeoVax in 2001. [6] The company worked with the National Institutes of Health to move the AIDS Vaccines her team had developed into Phase 1 and 2A human trials. Her vaccine regimen included priming with a DNA expressing non-infectious HIV-like particles and boosting with a recombinant modified vaccinia Ankara virus also expressing non-infectious HIV-like particles. The vaccine elicited both antibody and white blood cells. In 2007, she was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. [5]

In 2008, Robinson joined GeoVax as Senior Vice President. [6] In 2010 she was promoted to Chief Scientific Officer. [6]

Selected publications (245 total)

Personal life

After post-doctoral training, Robinson had a ten-year break (1967 to 1977) to raise three sons. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virology</span> Study of viruses

Virology is the scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host cells for reproduction, their interaction with host organism physiology and immunity, the diseases they cause, the techniques to isolate and culture them, and their use in research and therapy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DNA vaccine</span> Vaccine containing DNA

A DNA vaccine is a type of vaccine that transfects a specific antigen-coding DNA sequence into the cells of an organism as a mechanism to induce an immune response.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HIV vaccine development</span> In-progress vaccinations that may prevent or treat HIV infections

An HIV vaccine is a potential vaccine that could be either a preventive vaccine or a therapeutic vaccine, which means it would either protect individuals from being infected with HIV or treat HIV-infected individuals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vaccinia</span> Strain of poxvirus

Vaccinia virus is a large, complex, enveloped virus belonging to the poxvirus family. It has a linear, double-stranded DNA genome approximately 190 kbp in length, which encodes approximately 250 genes. The dimensions of the virion are roughly 360 × 270 × 250 nm, with a mass of approximately 5–10 fg. The vaccinia virus is the source of the modern smallpox vaccine, which the World Health Organization (WHO) used to eradicate smallpox in a global vaccination campaign in 1958–1977. Although smallpox no longer exists in the wild, vaccinia virus is still studied widely by scientists as a tool for gene therapy and genetic engineering.

Modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA) is an attenuated (weakened) strain of the vaccinia virus. It is being used as a vaccine against smallpox and mpox, having fewer side effects than smallpox vaccines derived from other poxviruses.

The murine leukemia viruses are retroviruses named for their ability to cause cancer in murine (mouse) hosts. Some MLVs may infect other vertebrates. MLVs include both exogenous and endogenous viruses. Replicating MLVs have a positive sense, single-stranded RNA (ssRNA) genome that replicates through a DNA intermediate via the process of reverse transcription.

GeoVax is a clinical-stage biotechnology company which develops vaccines. GeoVax's development platform uses Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) vector technology, with improvements to antigen design and manufacturing capabilities. GeoVax uses recombinant DNA or recombinant viruses to produce virus-like particles (VLPs) in the person being vaccinated.

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M. Juliana “Julie” McElrath is a senior vice president and director of the vaccine and infection disease division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the principal investigator of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network Laboratory Center in Seattle, Washington. She is also a professor at the University of Washington.

Raccoonpox virus (RCN) is a double-stranded DNA virus and a member of the orthopoxviruses in the family Poxviridae and subfamily Chordopoxvirinae which consists of eight genera: Avipoxvirus, Capripoxvirus, Leporipoxvirus, Molluscipoxvirus, Orthopoxvirus, Parapoxvirus, Suipoxvirus and Yatapoxvirus Vertebrates are the natural host of Chordopoxvirinae subfamily viruses. More specifically, raccoons are the natural hosts of RCN. RCN was isolated in 1961 from the upper respiratory tissues of 2 raccoons in a group of 92 observably healthy raccoons trapped close to Aberdeen, Maryland.

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.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Viral vector vaccine</span> Type of vaccine

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