Chih Jen Wei

TL;DR: This structure-based, self-assembling synthetic nanoparticle vaccine improves the potency and breadth of influenza virus immunity, and it provides a foundation for building broader vaccine protection against emerging influenza viruses and other pathogens.

TL;DR: Vaccination of mice and ferrets with H1–SS–np elicited broadly cross-reactive antibodies that completely protected mice and partially protected ferrets against lethal heterosubtypic H5N1 influenza virus challenge despite the absence of detectable H 5N1 neutralizing activity in vitro.

TL;DR: Vaccination with plasmid DNA encoding H1N1 influenza hemagglutinin (HA) and boosting with seasonal vaccine or replication-defective adenovirus 5 vector encoding HA stimulated the production of broadly neutralizing influenza antibodies, which were directed to the conserved stem region of HA and were also elicited in nonhuman primates.

TL;DR: Insight is provided into the initial events that lead to the generation of broadly neutralizing antibodies to influenza, informing the rational design of vaccines to elicit such antibodies and providing a model relevant to other infectious diseases, including human immunodeficiency virus/AIDS.

TL;DR: Structural-based modification of HA specificity can guide the development of preemptive vaccines and therapeutic monoclonal antibodies that can be evaluated before the emergence of human-adapted H5N1 strains.