Dartmouth labs get federal grants for vaccine research

By EMMA ROTH-WELLS

Valley News Staff Writer

Published: 10-14-2024 5:02 PM

HANOVER — Two Dartmouth research teams are set to receive a combined sum of up to nearly $3.6 million in grant funding to spur innovations in pandemic preparedness and vaccine generation.

The two research teams — one led by David Leib, chairman and professor of microbiology and immunology at Geisel School of Medicine, and the other led by Margaret Ackerman, professor of engineering at Thayer School of Engineering — are receiving funding from the Biden-Harris Administration’s Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, or ARPA-H.

The two Dartmouth labs are part of a cohort of labs across the country who have been selected for the Antigens Predicted for Broad Viral Efficacy through Computational Experimentation, or APECx program. The initiative, launched last October, seeks to develop vaccines more quickly and efficiently using artificial intelligence.

Leib’s team is doing the first line of efficacy testing for herpes simplex virus vaccines designed by artificial intelligence at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle.

The goal is to bring a vaccine to clinical trial in three years, a breakneck speed compared to the 10 to 15 years vaccine development typically takes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

“It’s a very ambitious timeline,” Leib said in a phone interview.

Ackerman’s team will collaborate with a lab at the University of Texas at Austin to generate new immunogens — molecules that when introduced in the body, can stimulate an immune system response — using experimental and computational protein design.

They will work on evaluating antibody responses to three different herpes viruses.

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“These are all herpes viruses that cause acute illness in some populations and are associated with cancer and other diseases later in life,” Ackerman said in an email.

If successful, the teams’ research may be extended two years past the initial three.

 Emma Roth-Wells can be reached at erothwells@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.