This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing theresources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject andinvestigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source,and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed isfor the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator.Regarding AIDSThe long-term goals of this project are three fold: One, to study the human immune response to a vaccine in it's entirety; starting from the innate responses, to the peak effector T and B cell responses, to the development and maintenance of immunological memory. Two, to understand how a successful vaccine works and to use this knowledge for designing strategies for enhancing vaccine efficacy. Three, to understand the cellular basis of immune senescence and develop strategies for improving responses of the elderly to vaccination. Also, a major emphasis of this proposal is on using genomics and proteomics to define the molecular signatures of innate and adaptive responses after vaccination. In fact, our overarching hypothesis is that there will clearly be molecular and cellular signatures of 'good' and 'bad' vaccines and that identifying these signatures will allow us to manipulate the immune response to either enhance immunity in the case of vaccines and immune therapy, or to decrease it for autoimmunity, transplantation and gene therapy. To achieve our goals we have put together a highly interactive and integrated approach consisting of three research projects: 1. Immunological memory to vaccination; 2. Modulating vaccine responses in NHPs with dendritic cells and TLRs; and 3. Immune senescence. These research projects are closely tied to the Technical Development Components that consist of: 1. Molecular signatures of immune responses to vaccination ; 2. Human monoclonal antibodies to category A pathogens ; and 3. Development of novel T cell assays.
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