Elizabeth Ramsburg, PhD  Faculty Central

 

Dr. Ramsburg joined the Duke Human Vaccine Institute in August 2005 from Yale University where she obtained her PhD in Immunology and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Dr. John Rose’s lab.  The Ramsburg lab researches the immunogenicity of experimental vaccines derived from attenuated recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV).  Ongoing projects in the lab are dedicated to using rVSV as a vaccine vector for vaccines against influenza, HIV, and smallpox.  

 

Previous studies have shown that rVSV can effectively express foreign antigens and elicit robust T cell and antibody responses to those antigens. A major challenge of influenza vaccine design is that high variability of the influenza virus hemagglutinin and neuraminidase genes (against which most protective immune responses are directed) necessitate yearly vaccination with a newly formulated flu vaccine.  The Ramsburg lab is studying ways to generate a “universal” flu vaccine by expressing the more highly conserved influenza antigens in rVSV vectors.  Further experiments will explore ways to tailor the immune response to immunization such that anti-flu responses are raised in the respiratory mucosa where they can be most effective. 

 

Dr. Ramsburg and her colleagues have also shown that VSV can induce vigorous CTL and antibody responses to HIV Envelope proteins.  The Ramsburg lab is working in collaboration with investigators at Duke and other institutions to develop a VSV-based HIV vaccine candidate for human clinical trials.