Speaker — Balaji Narasimhan, Iowa State University Anson Marston Distinguished Professor in Engineering and Vlasta Klima Balloun Faculty Chair, Chemical and Biological Engineering, and Nanovaccine Institute Director

Title — "Particle-based vaccine: A new paradigm"

Abstract — The design of vaccines to address infectious diseases is fraught with challenges, including poor immunogenicity, cold storage needs, multiple dose requirements, and needle-based delivery methods that require medical professionals to administer. We have developed a cross-disciplinary approach at the intersection of polymer chemistry, nanotechnology, and immunology for the molecular design of a safe, needle-free, and efficacious nanoparticle-based vaccine (i.e., nanovaccine) platform technology that can address these challenges. We have used a bottom-up approach to design vaccine adjuvants based on biodegradable amphiphilic polyanhydride nanoparticles, capable of mimicking a natural infection and inducing a robust immune response with long-lived protection. The nanoparticles persist within and activate immune cells and distribute rapidly to distal tissue sites. The nanoparticles can encapsulate fragile protein antigens and enable sustained antigen delivery to immune cells, facilitating the maintenance of antigen specific CD8⁺ and CD4⁺ T cells. Finally, the particles are stable at high temperature for extended periods of time, obviating the “cold chain,” which is a major hurdle in the deployment of vaccines to remote regions of the globe. 

This talk will focus on respiratory infections, in which we have demonstrated that nanovaccines confer long-lived protective immunity. The appearance of novel influenza A virus strains has renewed interest in developing “universal” vaccination strategies to combat this global public health threat. We have demonstrated that nanovaccines conferred protection to homologous and heterologous virus challenges in multiple animal models and induced influenza specific CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells (including tissue resident memory cells) and B cell (i.e., antibody and germinal center) responses both within the lungs and systemically. Our rational approach for designing and tailoring novel amphiphilic materials as nanoscale adjuvants has the tantalizing potential to catalyze the development of next generation countermeasures against emerging and re-emerging diseases.

Host — Jeff Essner, genetics, development and cell biology professor