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Drs. Kevin Legge and Thomas Waldschmidt receive a five-year research grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Kevin Legge    Thomas Waldschmidt 

Drs. Kevin Legge and Thomas Waldschmidt received a five-year NIH R01 research grant entitled “Nanovaccine-Mediated Immune Protection Against Influenza Virus.” The project will further optimize a nanoparticle based influenza vaccine designed for intranasal administration. Preliminary work demonstrated the nanovaccine to be capable of inducing potent B cell and T cell immunity against the influenza A virus both in the upper and lower airway, as well as systemically. The induced airway immunity persists for extended periods in the form of resident memory T cells and germinal center B cells. Importantly, the vaccine design allows for protection against both homologous and heterologous influenza viruses, potentially minimizing the need for yearly immunization. 

The research will be conducted in collaboration with Dr. Balaji Narasimhan at Iowa State University and Dr. Thomas Friedrich at the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Narasimhan is an expert in nanotechnology and Dr. Friedrich will test the optimized nanovaccine in non-human primates at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center.