Anthony Bowen
Columbia University, NY·Microbiology & Immunology·Early-career
Once your immune system has learned to recognize one version of a virus, that first lesson can shape — and limit — how it responds to later versions. This phenomenon, called immune imprinting, matters for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, because the virus keeps evolving into variants that escape existing antibodies.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Medicine & Clinical Research
Biophysics
- Topics
SARS-CoV-2
immune imprinting
neutralizing antibodies
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2029
What they work on
- Test whether immune imprinting from an initial D614G-strain vaccination limits neutralizing antibody responses to Omicron BA.4/5 boosters, using controlled immunization schedules in humanized mice that generate human-like antibodies.
- Characterize the antibody repertoires of immunized mice by sequencing individual B cells and applying bioinformatic analysis, to identify which antibody lineages are reused from the original exposure rather than newly generated.
- Produce monoclonal antibodies from immunized animals at high throughput and measure their neutralizing activity against SARS-CoV-2 variants, to see whether imprinted responses are functionally weaker against new strains.
- Map the viral epitopes — the specific sites on the spike protein — associated with imprinted antibody responses using binding assays and structural analysis, to inform structure-based vaccine design that avoids imprinting.
More about the research
Updated vaccines are meant to catch up, but if the immune system keeps replaying its original training, boosters aimed at new variants may not deliver the broader protection they promise. This work asks how deep that imprinting runs and what molecular features cause it.
Why it matters
Deciding which strain a COVID-19 booster should target is an open clinical question, and the answer depends on how strongly prior vaccination constrains new antibody responses. By pinpointing the antibody targets and immune mechanisms behind imprinting, this work could inform vaccine designs that sidestep it and generate broader protection against future SARS-CoV-2 variants, and possibly against other fast-changing pathogens such as influenza.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
David Veesler
University of Washington, WA·Microbiology & Immunology
Characterize how broadly serum antibodies from nonhuman primates immunized with nanoparticle vaccines co-displaying multiple receptor-binding-domain and spike antigens bind and neutralize betacoronaviruses.
Scott Pegan
University of California-Riverside, CA·Microbiology & Immunology
Define how non-neutralizing monoclonal antibodies against GP38, a non-structural glycoprotein of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus, confer protection, using combined molecular, cell-based and animal approaches.
Kai Xu
Ohio State University, OH·Biophysics
Determine structures of soluble, stabilized G and F glycoprotein ectodomains from emerging henipaviruses, including the bat-borne Cedar virus and Angavokely virus, to capture the full tetrameric G and the fragile prefusion F.
The school
Columbia University: 89 labs on PI Pages, $1.4B a year on research, 625 research doctorates a year.
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