David J. Veesler, Ph.D.
- Title
- Assistant Professor
- Department
- Biochemistry
- Institution
- University of Washington
- Address
- 1959 NE Pacific St
- City, State, ZIP
- Seattle, WA 98195
- Phone
- (206) 616-8753
- [email protected]
- Website
- http://faculty.washington.edu/dveesler/
- Research field
- Virology
- Award year
- 2017
Research
My research group intends to design a vaccine that is effective against the coronaviruses that cause Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Coronaviruses, which cause a variety of respiratory infections, use a trimeric spike protein to gain entry into human cells and initiate infection. The spike protein is also the virus’s Achilles’ heel, serving as a target for neutralizing antibodies produced by the host immune system. Recently, I leveraged methodological developments in cryo-electron microscopy to determine for the first time the precise, three-dimensional architecture of a coronavirus spike protein. Combining this approach with other cutting-edge methods in immunology, molecular biology, and protein design, I will characterize the structures of the spike proteins from the MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV, and other coronaviruses to understand host adaptation and identify epitopes that could be targeted by neutralizing antibodies. Based on this information, I will engineer and test vaccine candidates designed to elicit a vigorous immune response—work that could represent a major advance in treating these human infections for which there are currently no approved antivirals or vaccines.
Scholar Keywords
2017 Search Pew Scholars
- Mohamed S. Abou Donia, Ph.D.
- José L. Avalos, Ph.D.
- Eiman Azim, Ph.D.
- Erhu Cao, Ph.D.
- Ibrahim Cissé, Ph.D.
- Michael A. Crickmore, Ph.D.
- Rachel J. Dutton, Ph.D.
- Michael M. Halassa, M.D., Ph.D.
- Jorge Henao-Mejia, M.D., Ph.D.
- Ya-Chieh Hsu, Ph.D.
- Gene-Wei Li, Ph.D.
- Anna Victoria R. Molofsky, M.D., Ph.D.
- Shaeri Mukherjee, Ph.D.
- Alan C. Mullen, M.D., Ph.D.
- Carolyn M. Phillips, Ph.D.
- Kaoru Saijo, M.D., Ph.D.
- Robert Spitale, Ph.D.
- David J. Veesler, Ph.D.
- Elizabeth Villa, Ph.D.
- Bin Wu, Ph.D.
- Naoki Yamanaka, Ph.D.
- Nilay Yapici, Ph.D.