Noah Sather, PhD

Dr. Sather’s research focuses on the development of vaccines to induce protective antibody responses against disease causing pathogens. A guiding principle of this work is to understand infection-induced antibody responses to serve a natural prototype to guide vaccine development. The two main areas for research are HIV-1 and malaria.  His HIV-1 work has helped to define how broadly neutralizing antibodies develop during infection, and his current efforts are focused on understanding the kinetics, dynamics, and evolution of B cell responses to vaccination with HIV-1 Envelope proteins. His malaria work spans two species of malaria-causing parasites: Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax, and spans through multiple lifecycle intervention points. The major areas of this work include identification of new vaccine candidates, optimization of protective responses, and understanding how pre-existing immunity influences vaccine outcomes. In the fight against COVID-19, the lab is interested in understanding immune responses to Variants of Concern. They have now developed and contributed more than 30 recombinant trimeric Spike proteins derived from SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern that have helped advance our knowledge of how to fight the evolving pandemic.