The overall objective of Core C: Host Response Monitoring is to provide comprehensive and consistent immune monitoring to enhance the activities of the GV-CRC program. The center will advance promising candidate N. gonorrhea vaccines in a rigorous and systematic manner so that one or more candidates have a feasible path for licensure at the end of the five-year funding period. The center is focused on innovative vaccine platforms, immunogens and adjuvant formulations. This GV-CRC immunology-focused core will provide centralized assay platforms for detailed and comprehensive analysis of host immune response for all three GV-CRC projects. Core C is therefore essential to the overall success of the GV-CRC program to develop vaccines against N. gonorrhea, a major public health threat. To accomplish Core goals, the efforts and expertise of Dr. Sempowski's cellular immunology laboratory and Dr. Staats' mucosal immunology laboratory have been united. The Core will be run out of the NIAID-Regional Biocontainment Laboratory at Duke University in the Duke Human Vaccine Institute. Drs. Sempowski and Staats are experts in systemic and mucosal immune monitoring in small animals and human. In addition, Dr. Staats is a thought-leader in vaccine adjuvant discovery and development and will bring this expertise to the GV-CRC. Proposed centralized immune monitoring approaches have been divided into three specific aims. 1) Humoral Responses: Provide high-throughput antibody quantity and isotype assessment by ELISA, and antibody quality (avidity) by surface plasmon resonance; 2) Cellular Responses: Provide expertise in cellular subset isolation, polychromatic flow cytometry/cell sorting, and functional in vitro restimulation assays for comprehensive host response monitoring to both experimental vaccines/adjuvants and challenge pathogens; and 3) Multiplex Biomarker Analysis: Provide targeted multiplex array profiling of biological samples, such as culture supernatant, serum/plasma, urine or inflammatory exudate, using the luminex bead array platform. The Core will support all four GV-CRC research projects and Core leadership will work closely with the center PI and project leaders to ensure that the needs of all projects are rigorously met in a reliable, reproducible and timely manner.
