Investigators and Program Directors
Jeffrey S. Kennedy
Research Physician, Wadsworth Center, Clinical and Experimental Endocrinology and Immunology
Associate Professor, School of Public Health, Biomedical Sciences
M.D., Tufts University School of Medicine, 1987
Fellowships: Geographic Medicine and Infectious Diseases, New England Medical Center, (1991-95), Cancer Immunology and AIDS, Harvard School of Public Health (1998-99).
Email: jsk07@health.state.ny.us
Research Interests
Our research interest centers on host (especially human) immunity against viruses. We study human immunity by focusing on three general areas of interest; (1) the cellular (T cell) immune responses against viruses, (2) the effects of environmental stress on cellular immunity, and (3) the influence host genes on immune pathology.
Clinical Vaccine Development
A major emphasis of the laboratory is translational research, specifically the development of biomarker assays for the assessing immune responses that correlate with protection. Human T cell responses to infections are critical for the development of protective immunity. We endeavor to understand T cell responses during natural viral infections, such as HIV, Yellow Fever, West Nile and Alphaviruses that can subsequently be translated towards the development of new assays for assessing immune responses following vaccination. We focus our expertise on the development of assays to novel vaccines targeting emerging viruses that might fall into the FDA two-animal rule for vaccine licensure. These vaccines target pathogens that either occur at low incidence or affect human populations through isolated regional or global epidemics, making traditional human efficacy trials impossible. Our research goal is to develop multiplex biomarker assays that encompass evaluation of safety and tolerability as well as standard immunogenicity following vaccination in humans. We define at risk profiles for severe disease following natural infection, then assess whether similar profiles might explain risk for adverse events following vaccination. The laboratory employs both field studies of human infection as well as mouse human-HLA transgenics to explore the relationships between T cell memory, antibodies and immune-based pathology.
Novel vaccines
The laboratory has been actively studying cellular immune responses to novel vaccines, including next generation smallpox vaccines, a DNA vaccine for HIV, and a chimeric vaccine for West Nile. Current vaccines of interest in our lab include HIV, influenza, Dengue, Yellow Fever, Japanese Encephalitis, and West Nile virus. The laboratory is focused on developing novel vaccines to emerging infectious diseases in the hope of providing global access to next generation vaccines.
Contact Information
Phone: 518-473-8421
Fax: 518-473-2900
Email: jsk07@health.state.ny.us