(PRWEB) June 21, 2016 -- Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center this month began recruiting volunteers to participate in a clinical trial aimed at decoding the human “immunome,” the genetic underpinnings of the immune system.
The study is the first phase of an international effort led by the Human Vaccines Project, a public-private partnership of academic research centers, industry, non-profits and government agencies designed to accelerate the development of next-generation vaccines and immunotherapies.
“I am tremendously excited to launch the Project’s Human Immunome Program, and look forward to generating important new data that should facilitate vaccine design for both infectious diseases and cancers,” said James Crowe Jr., M.D., director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Center, in a news release.
“The Project remains committed to rapid, open source communication of these data, to enable the community of global scientists to advance new and fundamental insights on how the human immune system can be mobilized more effectively to fight disease,” Crowe said.
Progress against infectious diseases and cancer has been hampered by inadequate understanding of the principal components of the immune system, particularly the massive collection of receptors on B and T cells. These cells and their receptors enable the immune system to recognize, adapt to and attack an extraordinarily large number of disease threats.
Thanks to recent advances in genomics, systems biology and bioinformatics, researchers have been able to sequence and characterize many of these receptors. Such information is critical to engineering highly targeted vaccines and therapies to confront major infectious diseases and emerging pandemics, as well as autoimmune disorders and cancer.
“For the first time we have the technological tools to undertake such an ambitious project to decode the human immune system,” said Wayne C. Koff, Ph.D., President and CEO of the Human Vaccines Project.
“As the Human Genome Project has ushered in a new era in precision medicine, the Human Vaccines Project has the potential to enable a new era of vaccine and immunotherapeutic development against some of the world’s most pressing diseases,” Koff said.
As a first step of the pilot study at VUMC, two healthy individuals will undergo leukapheresis, a blood donation process in which large numbers of circulating white blood cells are removed by filtration, while red blood cells are returned to the donor.
After the genetic sequences of all of the receptors on the white blood cells from each individual have been determined, the study will be expanded to include about 100 subjects, representing different ages, genders, ethnicities and geographies.
This will then form the baseline set of data to expand the study to more than 1,000 subjects, a subset of whom will be vaccinated with licensed and experimental vaccines. Insights about the fundamental principles of human immunology gained from this study will help guide next generation vaccine development.
The number of sequences acquired from them could be in the billions, and will constitute the first detailed account of the immunome, said Crowe, who is the Ann Scott Carell Professor and professor of Pediatrics and Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology.
Crowe and his colleagues will collaborate with one of the Project’s scientific hubs in La Jolla, California, which is made up of the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, University of California, San Diego and The Scripps Research Institute.
JCVI and the San Diego Supercomputer Center at UC San Diego will serve as the Project’s global Bioinformatics Core.
The Human Vaccines Project will fund the project. Because it can cost more than $100,000 to acquire the genetic repertoire from each individual’s white blood cells, due to the large amount of sequencing required, eventually more than $100 million will be needed to fully decipher the human immunome, officials said.
But if the complete sequence of the human immunome could be achieved in a decade, it would be a “major achievement,” said Nobel Laureate Peter Doherty, Ph.D., a member of the Human Vaccines Project Scientific Steering Committee and Professor at the University of Melbourne.
It would “greatly advance our understanding of the human immune system, enabling rational and targeted design of vaccines and immunotherapies for major global diseases,” Doherty said.
About the Human Vaccines Project
The Human Vaccines Project is a non-profit public-private partnership with the mission to accelerate the development of vaccines and immunotherapies against major infectious diseases and cancers by decoding the human immune system. The Project, incubated initially at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), has a growing list of partners and financial supporters, including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Aeras, Crucell/Janssen, GSK, MedImmune, Pfizer, Regeneron, Sanofi Pasteur, J. Craig Venter Institute, La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, UC San Diego, The Scripps Research Institute, and the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The Project brings together leading academic research centers, industrial partners, nonprofits and governments to address the primary scientific barriers to developing new vaccines and immunotherapies, and has been endorsed by 35 of the world’s leading vaccine scientists.
About Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Vanderbilt University Medical Center is home to Vanderbilt University Hospital, The Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, the Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital and the Vanderbilt Stallworth Rehabilitation Hospital. These hospitals experienced more than 63,000 inpatient admissions during fiscal year 2016. Vanderbilt’s adult and pediatric clinics treated more than 2 million patients during this same period.
Both the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and School of Nursing are recognized by U.S. News & World Report’s annual Best Graduate Schools as among the nation’s best with the School of Medicine ranked 15th and the School of Nursing 13th. The School of Medicine’s biomedical research program has earned its place among the nation’s top 10 in terms of public and private research funding, receiving more than $500 million in total funding during 2015.
Vanderbilt University Hospital and the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt are recognized by U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospitals as among the nation’s best with 18 nationally ranked specialties.
Ted Schenkelberg, Human Vaccines Project, +1 646.441.0894, [email protected]
SOURCE Human Vaccines Project
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