Hartigan-O'Connor Lab
Principal Investigator: Dennis J. Hartigan-O'Connor
Institution: University of California, Davis (Davis, CA)
Primary Subfield: Immunology
Recruitment Status: ✅ Hiring Postdocs
Research Focus
The goals of Project 2 are to test innovative approaches to elicitation of uniquely durable, high-avidity T cells; test if such responses have any independent protective efficacy against SHIV infection; and learn how best to combine the T-cell regimens with B-cell vaccines to maintain the advantages of each. The lack of efficacy in HVTN 702, 705, and 706 has crystallized the truth that transformative advances in vaccine technology and immunology will be required before we can hope to generate protective immunity against HIV. Through the approaches below we aim to create unique T-cell responses, qualitatively different from those tested for protective efficacy before, and which can support FP-inclusive vaccine regimens via multiple pathways. One approach uses IL-10 partial-agonist cytokines to support more intense and durable T-cell responses including both conventional cytotoxic responses and CXCR5+ follicular T cells with B-cell helper function. We predict that this constellation of responses will support FP vaccination both directly, via support for B-cell development in germinal centers and resulting production of neutralizing antibody, and indirectly, via provision of cytotoxic…
Active NIH Awards
- 5P01AI178375-04: Project 2 (2026)
- 5P01AI181044-02: Contributions of durable, high-avidity T-cell responses to protection achieved using the Opti-FliP vaccine regimen (2026)
- 5P01AI181044-02: Optimal T-cell support for HIV neutralizing antibody induction to fusion peptide-inclusive regimens (Opti-FliP) (2026)
- 5P01AI178375-04: Core-001 (2026)
- 5P01AI181044-02: Administrative Core (2026)
Explore 700+ US Biology Labs on FindBioLabs.com