Jeffrey Schneider
Rush University, IL·Microbiology & Immunology
Antiretroviral therapy has turned HIV infection from a fatal disease into a manageable long-term condition, yet people living with HIV still face illnesses tied to ongoing immune activation and inflammation, and there is still no effective vaccine. Attempts to protect people by injecting broadly neutralizing IgG antibodies, the main antibody class in blood, have not succeeded.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Medicine & Clinical Research
Biochemistry
- Topics
IgA
immunoglobulin A
broadly neutralizing antibodies
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2028
What they work on
- Characterize the glycosylation patterns, the sugar chains attached to antibodies, on bulk IgA isolated from people living with HIV versus people without HIV, and test whether these patterns correlate with viral load.
- Measure how donor IgA glycosylation profiles affect transport of the antibody across endothelial cell layers, the lining that antibodies must cross to reach tissues.
- Produce glyco-engineered anti-HIV monomeric IgA by expressing cloned antibody in 293 Freestyle cells with glycosyltransferase enzymes knocked down, generating a panel of defined sugar patterns.
- Define which glycosylation patterns on anti-HIV IgA maximize transcytosis across endothelium and antiviral effector functions, to guide immunotherapy design.
More about the research
This project explores a different antibody class, IgA, which guards mucosal surfaces such as the gut lining, as a candidate immunotherapy against HIV.
Why it matters
With no HIV vaccine available and a recent trial of injected broadly neutralizing IgG antibodies failing to protect participants, alternative prevention strategies are needed. Defining which sugar patterns let anti-HIV IgA cross tissue barriers and act against the virus could inform the design of future vaccine candidates and antibody-based therapies for people at risk of HIV.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Wei Li
University of Pittsburgh, PA·Microbiology & Immunology
Engineer soluble CD4 D1-domain variants with improved binding kinetics and isolate single-domain VH binders against CD4-induced epitopes on HIV envelope, combining computational structure design, phage display and time-resolved cryo-electron microscopy.
Matthew Gardner
Emory University, GA·Microbiology & Immunology
Test whether co-delivering an AAV vector encoding rhesus macaque PD-L1, a protein that engages the T-cell brake receptor PD-1, sustains blood levels of the HIV broadly neutralizing antibody 10-1074 high enough to protect macaques from repeated low-dose SHIV challenge.
Charles Rinaldo
University of Pittsburgh, PA·Microbiology & Immunology
Measure neutralizing antibody function and B lymphocyte responses after Pfizer or Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccination in 200 men and women with HIV and 50 HIV-negative controls from the MWCCS.
The school
Rush University: 7 labs on PI Pages, $139M a year on research, 26 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.