De La Torre Lab
Principal Investigator: Juan C. De La Torre
Institution: Scripps Research Institute (La Jolla, CA)
Primary Subfield: Immunology
Recruitment Status: ✅ Accepting PhD Students ✅ Hiring Postdocs
Research Focus
PROJECT SUMMARY Several mammarenaviruses (MaAv), chiefly Lassa (LASV) in Western Africa and Junin (JUNV) in the Argentinean Pampas, cause hemorrhagic fever (HF) disease in humans and pose important public health problems in their endemic regions. In addition, the globally distributed MaAv lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) is an underrecognized human pathogen of clinical significance in neonatal infections, and a serious threat to immunocompromised people. Moreover, LASV and JUNV pose credible biodefense threats and are Category A agents. No FDA-licensed vaccines exist for MaAv, and current therapy is limited to the off-label use of ribavirin whose efficacy remains controversial. Hence, the significance to human health of developing novel therapeutics to combat human pathogenic MaAv. We have identified potent novel lead compound inhibitors of the polymerase (mCOT466) and EndoN (mCPB916) activities of the Old World (LCMV and LASV), and the distantly related New World JUNV) MaAv L proteins. The central goal of this proposal is to define the mechanisms of action, broad-spectrum anti-MaAv potential, and in vivo efficacy of these inhibitors while minimizing off-target liabilities…
Active NIH Awards
- 1R01AI194636-01A1: Targeting the polymerase and endonuclease activities of the L protein of human pathogenic mammarenaviruses (2026)
- 5U01AI181212-03: Novel Lassa fever live-attenuated vaccine platform with safety features ensuring unbreachable attenuation (2026)
- 4U19AI171443-02: Development and validation of antivirals against hemorrhagic fever viruses of pandemic concern (2026)
- 5U01AI181212-02: Novel Lassa fever live-attenuated vaccine platform with safety features ensuring unbreachable attenuation (2025)
- 1U01AI181212-01A1: Novel Lassa fever live-attenuated vaccine platform with safety features ensuring unbreachable attenuation (2024)
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