Thanks to former PhD student Alex Fowler @AlexmFowler, Alan Remaley @nih_nhlbi, John Schiller.@theNCI, Koen Van Rompay @CNPRCresearch.and others for making this happen.

Our most recent publication in npj vaccines (@Nature_NPJ) describes a vaccine against PCSK9 that lowers LDL cholesterol levels in mice and non-human primates

Our newest preprint describes our continuing efforts to develop a vaccine targeting PCSK9 that lowers LDL cholesterol. Kudos to first author @AlexmFowler and thanks to our many collaborators, including Alan Remaley at @nih_nhlbi and @KoenVanRompay @CNPRCresearch.

RT @eliseo_fc: RT: Postdoctoral fellowships available at @UNM and @UNMHSC, 4 slots available for a September 1, 2023 start #sciencetwitter….

Check out the latest paper from Dr. Lucie Jelinkova, a former graduate student in the lab. Lucie looked at the how maternal antibodies in newborn mice affect antibody responses to a VLP-based malaria vaccine. Interesting data and real-world implications!

This was in collaboration with @FrietzeLab, @bradfutelab, @LizzieCClarke, & Dave Peabody and others @UNMHSC & with Juan Pascale at the #Gorgas Memorial Institute in Panama.

Happy to share @AlexmFowler's 2nd first author publication from our laboratory. Alex mapped epitopes targeted by human antibody responses to Zika Virus infection.

We were talking about viral infection of pets today in Virology Journal Club. Seemed like a good opportunity to plug @JennyRohn 's book Cat Zero.

RT @WardLab1: Another malaria CSP antibody story describing the structural basis of how unique homotypic interactions in the L9 antibody re….

RT @mozbun1: Are you looking for a #postdocposition ? I am looking for a motivated postdoc to help study the regulation of HPV oncogene ex….

Sorry, Sarah is @Shapi256! My apologies Sarah, and thanks for your help on this project!.

In addition, we are interested in pairing our strategy with other promising malaria vaccine candidates.

We're now trying to identify adjuvants that are compatible with VLPs and elicit similarly durable high titer antibody levels.

VLP based vaccines are very good at eliciting long-lasting antibody responses. In mice, for example, VLP vaccination results in very stable antibody levels.

So, what's next? One issue is the longevity of antibody responses. Because protection is dependent on circulating antibody levels, these levels must remain high after vaccination.

And, as we show in our recent manuscript, this vaccine provides stronger protection. Fidel Zavala and his group showed that immunization with L9 VLPs protect more than half of the mice that we challenged with malaria from blood-stage infection, suggesting sterilizing immunity.

But, this vaccine didn't prevent blood-stage infection. So, next, we targeted the epitope of the L9 mAb, which is probably the most potent anti-CSP antibody described to date.

Last year, we developed a vaccine that targeted the CIS43 epitope. Combined with novel adjuvant developed by @vaxine_news and his team at Vaxine, the CIS43 VLP vaccine could reduce parasite liver loads in a mouse model.

This is where we got interested in working on malaria vaccines. We've developed a platform vaccine technology that uses a virus-like particle based nanoparticle to enhance the immunogenicity of diverse vaccine targets.