Speaker:

Kevin J. Whaley, PhD
Mapp Biopharmaceutical, Inc.
ReProtect, Inc.

Friday, April 1, 2005
2:00-3:00 pm seminar
LSE 104


Topic: Preventing Transmission: Lessons from Mucosal Ecology

Abstract:
Transmission is a critical step in the life cycle of a pathogen. Unless an
infectious agent
is transmitted effectively to a new host, it will die with its current
host.  The majority of
infections are transmitted via the mucosa (genitourinary, respiratory,
gastrointestinal).

Most existing commercial vaccines act by priming the immune system to
respond when
transmission of infection occurs; the vaccines allow the host to control
and/or eliminate the
infection, thereby preventing disease (morbidity associated with presence
of the pathogen).
The nature of some viral infections, however, suggests that to prevent
disease may require
preventing transmission at the mucosal site of pathogen entry.

Effective technologies for mucosal protection have yet to be developed for
most sexually
transmitted pathogens.  Exclusion of infectious agents from mucosal
surfaces of the
reproductive tract is a key objective of microbicides (e.g. BufferGel) and
mucosal vaccines.
With mucosal antibodies as a common mechanism of exclusion, parallel
development of
antibody-based microbicides and mucosal vaccines is an opportunity to
evaluate protective
antibody specificities and concentrations in the female reproductive
tract.



Refreshments served at 1:45 pm

Host: Hugh Mason