{"id":208998,"date":"2025-01-09T15:53:41","date_gmt":"2025-01-10T01:53:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=208998"},"modified":"2025-01-09T15:53:41","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T01:53:41","slug":"hiv-vaccine-targets-weak-spots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/01\/09\/hiv-vaccine-targets-weak-spots\/","title":{"rendered":"Innovative vaccine design targets HIV<\/abbr>\u2019s weak spots"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"Iain
Iain MacPherson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since HIV<\/abbr> was linked to AIDS<\/abbr> in 1983, researchers have struggled to develop a vaccine due to the virus’s rapid mutation, which makes it difficult to create an immune response that can prevent infection. Iain MacPherson, assistant professor at the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa\u2019s John A. Burns School of Medicine<\/a> (JABSOM<\/abbr>), is tackling this problem with a promising new approach. He recently received a $410,813 grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop a vaccine targeting a stable part of the virus.<\/p>\n

“Developing an HIV<\/abbr> vaccine is one of the most difficult, complex problems in medicine,” MacPherson said. “We\u2019re aiming to engineer an immunogen better capable of protecting people against diverse strains of HIV<\/abbr> so we can help stem the spread of HIV<\/abbr>.”<\/p>\n

MacPherson explained that HIV<\/abbr>\u2019s rapid mutations make vaccine development tough. Researchers are focusing on a stable region of the virus\u2019s spike protein to create broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) that can fight multiple strains of the virus.<\/p>\n

“If an antibody can bind to that part of the HIV<\/abbr> spike protein, it would block the interaction, neutralize the virus, and prevent it from being able to infect someone,” MacPherson said. <\/p>\n

More effective vaccine design<\/h2>\n

MacPherson\u2019s research focuses on accelerating the production of these bnAbs by targeting specific B-cells. The new vaccine design aims to direct the immune system to target specific B-cells that can produce a key antibody, helping them develop it more effectively.<\/p>\n

Working with JABSOM<\/abbr> Professor Axel Lehrer, MacPherson is using molecular engineering and AI<\/abbr> tools to test the vaccine design on humanized mouse models. If successful, the approach could improve vaccines for other viruses like influenza and COVID-19.<\/p>\n

A Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> native, MacPherson began HIV<\/abbr> vaccine research during his postdoctoral studies and joined UH<\/abbr> in 2017.<\/p>\n

“There\u2019s been a lot of amazing work done in HIV<\/abbr> vaccine development and we\u2019re hoping that we can contribute part of the solution to the HIV<\/abbr> vaccine problem,” he said.<\/p>\n

Read more at JABSOM<\/abbr><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iain MacPherson\u2019s new vaccine design will target conserved virus regions and combat rapid mutations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[993,31,1467,1363,429,9],"class_list":["post-208998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-hivaids","tag-john-a-burns-school-of-medicine","tag-manoa-excellence-in-research","tag-manoa-research","tag-tropical-medicine-and-medical-microbiology","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208998"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209023,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208998\/revisions\/209023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}