USAMRIID researchers to play key roles in prestigious consortium

Story by Quentin Johnson

United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases

FORT DETRICK, Md. – U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases scientists were invited to partake in a consortium of 13 teams in academia, government, and industry led by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine called PROVIDENT, which stands for Prepositioning Optimized Strategies for Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics Against Diverse Emerging Infectious Threats.

Four RIID principal investigators will be involved as either co-leads, significant contributors or key personnel on three of four projects within the consortium.

“We are a significant player in this consortium,” says Andrew Herbert, Ph.D., the chief of RIID’s Viral Immunology Branch and one of the co-leads. “It fits the USAMRIID mission, and we will be working with world-class scientists.”

Einstein College began PROVIDENT after receiving a five-year, $14 million per year grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to participate in a broad national effort to develop “plug-and-play” vaccines and antibody-based therapies against a wide range of emerging viruses, according to a September Einstein College press release.

RIID is scheduled to receive approximately $23 million over five years to participate in the consortium, says Herbert.

The consortium’s goal is to design vaccine and therapeutic blueprints for prototype pathogens – viruses that have the potential to cause significant human disease – with a specific focus on three families of viruses: nairoviruses, which cause Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever; hantaviruses, which cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome; and paramyxoviruses, which cause mumps.

Herbert says portions of the projects will be taking place simultaneously to ensure deadlines are met and milestones are achieved.

The first project will focus on the basic science behind the viruses, including the identification of host factors that are important for infection, and how researchers can use that information to develop better vaccine antigens and antibodies, says Stephanie Monticelli, Ph.D., a co-lead for the project.

“We want to focus on what we can learn to better understand these viruses and how we will use that information in the other projects to develop countermeasures,” says Monticelli, a research scientist and principal investigator with the Henry M. Jackson Foundation at RIID’s Viral Immunology Branch.

The second project that RIID is participating in could be considered the main effort of the consortium and known as the design phase, says Courtney Cohen, Ph.D., a research microbiologist who will serve as the project’s co-lead. The project will focus on the basic structural designs of antigens to make sure they elicit an effective response when tested in animal models.

The third project that RIID will be involved in will focus on antibody engineering and development, says Catalina Florez, Ph.D., a senior research scientist with the Henry M. Jackson Foundation at RIID.

Lab testing on the cellular level begins once enough viable antibody candidates are identified, and upon successful results, scientists will move on to animal model testing, says Florez.

Herbert says an additional benefit to the consortium is the opportunity to build strong collaborative relationships with world-class professionals to achieve one’s goal.

“What I find most exciting about these types of research activities is the ability to collaborate with so many external entities,” says Herbert. “Together, we can accomplish so much more than we can on our own.”