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Vaccine Branch

Research

Vaccine Branch Mission: Cancer and HIV are both chronic diseases that suppress and evade the immune system. By combining expertise in both cancer and retroviral vaccines, the Vaccine Branch aims to promote cross-fertilization of ideas and progress in both areas in a unique way that is not duplicated elsewhere. The Branch conducts a program of clinical and laboratory research designed to 1) elucidate basic mechanisms of immune response and molecular virology, and 2) apply these to the design and development of vaccines and immunotherapy for the prevention and treatment of cancer and AIDS, as well as viruses that cause cancer. In particular, the Branch carries out studies on 1) the mechanisms of T lymphocyte activation and regulation, 2) cancer immunosurveillance, 3) mucosal immunity, 4) retroviral molecular biology and pathogenesis (including transcriptional and posttranscriptional regulation of retroviruses involved in causing cancer or AIDS), 5) regulation of cellular gene expression, and 6) immune responses to retroviruses, and 7) strategies for rational vaccine design, and utilizes these findings to design novel vaccines for cancer, HIV and cancer- and AIDS-associated viruses. The Branch also carries out clinical trials of vaccines for treatment of patients with some of these diseases.

This page was last updated on 8/21/2008.