iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Congratulations to our Streblow, Labriola, DeFilippis, Estes, Axthelm, and Hirsch lab and affiliate lab teams with additional contributors! Last week they published a new joint article related to the Zika virus vaccine. Their paper uses a highly pathogenic nonhuman primate pregnancy model.

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

This week our Sacha, Wolters, and Hansen lab and affiliate lab teams with additional contributors including Nancy Haigwood and Ann Hessel, published a new paper in Nature Microbiology! Their findings suggest a synergy between broadly neutralizing antibodies, ART and CCR5 blockade for...

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Please join us in congratulating Associate Professor Alec Hirsch, Ph.D., on his new grant award with National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Disease! His work will focus on a mechanistic analysis of combined liposome- TLR7/7 agonist adjuvanted virus-like particle vaccination.

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Congratulations to our Hancock, Streblow, and Caposio lab teams and their contributors! Their paper explores the UL22A protein and the UL22A Y65 and Y69 residues, and how they're necessary for efficient HCMV reactivation from latency in CD34+ hematopoietic progenitor cells. And that UL22A...

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Please join us in congratulating our Bimber, Hansen, Labriola, Axthelm, and Picker labs and affiliate lab teams with their contributors, on their publication in Frontiers Immunology! Their paper uses T Cell Antigenic Recognition Sequencing (TAR-seq) to provide a precise and comprehensive...

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Congratulations to our Estes and Okoye lab teams, with their contributors, on their recent paper! Their review analyzes the emerging evidence on HIV associated neuropathology in antiretroviral therapy suppression in people with HIV, focusing on the role of the gut-brain axis.

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

O'nyong-nyong virus (ONNV) is a mosquito-borne alphavirus first isolated in 1959. Currently, we have a limited understanding of ONNV infection and disease in relevant animal models, which restricts the evaluation of vaccines and therapeutics. Our Streblow, Axthelm, and Labriola lab and affiliate...

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Congratulations to VGTI Associate Professor Rebecca Skalsky, Ph.D., @rskalsky.bsky.social for her new paper! Her review looks at common themes for both human and viral miRNAs in viral infection processes, which highlights their dual functions in suppressing and promoting viral life cycles.

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

We are happy to celebrate our Wilder Lab Team on their feature article in OHSU News! They are hard at work researching a universal vaccine against malaria. Great job everyone. Read more by visiting: news.ohsu.edu/2026/07/01/s...

news.ohsu.edu

Study reveals path for universal vaccine against malaria

A T cell-based vaccine that targets the parasite as it infects the liver opens new possibilities for malaria, other parasite vaccines.

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Celebrating our newest faculty member Emily Voigt, Ph.D., on recieving the OCTRI Biodmedical Innovation Drug Award! Congratulations Emily 🎉 Her work will focus on an NLC-Delivered saRNA vaccine for Respiratory Syncytial Virus.

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Congratulations to our Wilder lab team for securing a new grant award! Their work will focus on developing a heterologous vesicular stomatitis virus prime-virus vesicle boost vaccine regimen for Malaria, that can generate a protective cellular and humoral immunity to multiple...

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Please join us in celebrating Caralyn Labriola, BVMS DACVP, and team, on receiving a grant from the Collins Medical Trust! Her study will examine translational characteristics of the nasopharyngeal lymphatic plexus across humans and non human primates at the anatomic, cellular and molecular level.

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Congratulations to our Wilder lab team, and contributors, on their recent publication! Currently, both licensed Malaria vaccines target only the circumsporozoite protein expressed during early stages of Plasmodium falciparum infection. These results provide the proof-of-concept evidence that...

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Amazing news to share today— OHSU VGTI Professor Scott Hansen, Ph.D, receives a promotion to Quality and Operations Lead for the University Shared Resources (USR)! 🎉🥳 Congratulations Scott!

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Congratulating Professor Scott Hansen, Ph.D., who has been awarded a $210,000 grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases! This is part of the larger award from National Institutes of Health on March 6, 2026, to support research evaluating a prototype tuberculosis vaccine.

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Amazing contribution from our very own Brandon Wilder, Ph.D., on a new publication which characterized and optimized an Aotus nancymaae non-human primate (NHP) model of Plasmodium vivax (Pv) blood stage infection to enable the testing of novel vaccines and immunoprophylactics.

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Congratulations to our Streblow and DeFilippis lab teams, with their contributors, for their recent publication! Their work both represents a thorough in vivo immune characterization of the effects of transmembrane STING agonism and demonstrates the efficacy of a potential vaccine adjuvant and...

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Celebrating Louis Picker, M.D, and his publication in Nature Microbiology! His team, along with researchers from Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research and Harvard Medical School, used NHP's to track where HIV comes from when it returns after treatments stop.

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Congratulations to our Frueh, Picker, Burwitz, Hansen, and Sacha lab teams for securing a new patent! Their patent relates to methods that generate an immune response for the treatment or prevention of hepatitis B virus infections.

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

What would a world free of HIV look like? Tune into the OHSU Foundation for their special feature with VGTI affiliate professor, Jonah Sacha, PhD. Explain It! is a video series that spotlights the impactful research taking place at OHSU. Learn more by visiting: ohsufoundation.org/stories/expl...

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Congratulations to our Streblow lab for securing a grant award with Pacific National Northwest Laboratory, which focuses on identification of broad spectrum anti-infectives.

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

We are pleased to announce that our Hansen Lab has been awarded a grant with Tufts University, focusing on the spatial multimoic stop redict granuloma trajectory and bacterial restriction during vaccination. Congratulations!

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

Congratulations to our Streblow Lab and their contributors! They used multiple methods to investigate joint-associated tissues in alphavirus-infected mice at a late stage of infection. Their data suggests that macrophages harbour replicating viral RNA and contribute to the sustained joint...

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Reposting with correction: a recent publication from our Caposio, Malouli*, and Hancock lab teams with their contributors; where they establish Notch pathway suppression as a critical viral strategy for reactivation and highlight potential therapeutic targets for preventing HCMV disease.

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Congratulations to our Okoye and Picker labs, and their contributors! This week they published a paper exploring the trajectories of multiple individual SIV barcode lineages across in vitro infection of cell lines and primary cells and after mucosal and intravenous infection of macaques.

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

In this new publication our Haigwood affiliate lab with their contributors and invited experts, discuss the current state of science to identify challenges hindering advancements, and propose recommendations for overcoming these challenges. Read more at: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41837632/

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

Amazing work by our Okoye, Hansen, Estes, Axthelm, Picker lab teams with their contributors, on their new publication investigating treatments using barcoded SIVmac239 in rhesus macaques! Read more about SIV by visiting: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41617893/

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

Congratulations to our Okoye, Estes, Axthelm, and Picker Lab teams with their contributors on their new publication which investigates the magnitude and activation of SIV-specific CD8+ T cells. Read more about SIV T Cell responses by visiting the below link. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41609736/

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

In this recently updated publication our Frueh, Streblow, and Hansen lab teams with their contributors, explore Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) encoding and four viral Fc-gamma receptors (vFcγRs) that counteract antibody-mediated activation in vitro. Read more at: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39885150/

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

In their new publication, our Sacha affiliate lab with their contributors, explore the association with ccf-mtDNA dynamics in acute and chronic HIV infections. Read more at: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41556528/

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

In this review, our Hessell and Haigwood affiliate lab team with their contributors, address human monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) as a strategy for treating and preventing viral infections in pediatric populations. Read the full article at: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40174915/

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

Our Bimber affiliate lab team with their contributors, recently published a paper where they seek to understand the degree and implications of intraspecies structural variation is essential to all biomedical research using rhesus macaques as a model.

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

In their newly published paper, our Frueh Lab with their contributors characterized the outcome of primary rhesus CMV (RhCMV) infection in pregnant, immunocompetent, RhCMV-naïve rhesus macaques. This model provides new insights into the complexity of CMV vertical transmission and...

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

In this study, our Picker and Hansen lab teams with their contributors, provide preliminary evidence that combining their selected orthogonal antiviral mechanisms can offer increased protection against SIV. Read the full article here: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40529575/

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

In this publication, our Frueh Lab and their contributors, expand on their previous findings related to HLA-E surface expression. This updated study reveals previously unrecognized endosomal trafficking pathways and regulatory mechanisms that distinguish HLA-E from classical HLA class I molecules.

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

In their recent publication, our Streblow lab with their contributors, explore the emergence of mosquito-borne alphaviruses that cause chronic arthritis or encephalitis and highlight the urgent need for broad-spectrum antiviral therapeutics. Read more at: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41090377/

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

Leronlimab directly binds the extracellular domains of CCR5, modulates downstream signaling and potentially can slow, reverse, or prevent fibrosis. In this proof‐of‐concept study, our Hansen Lab with contributors, demonstrated that leronlimab has a favorable safety profile and was well tolerated.

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

In this recent publication our Bimber, Hansen, Picker lab teams and their contributors demonstrate that systemic vaccination promotes a Trm cell response in barrier compartments and that Trm cells repurpose abundant neighboring stromal, parenchymal, and immune cells to amplify alarm signals...

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

Liver dysfunction is more common and severe among people with HIV than in the general population. In this recent publication, our Burwitz affiliate lab explores the correlation between different cell types in the IFN-1 response, focusing on macrophage subsets during the acute phase of SIV infection.

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

In their recent publication, our Tafesse affiliate lab with their contributors, explore SARS-CoV-2 and whether the patterns of host lipid rewiring remained consistent across variants and whether the changes in the abundance of lipid classes are related to changes in the expression...

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

In collaboration with Dr. Seley-Radtke’s group at the University of Maryland, our Hirsch lab has contributed to a study identifying a new series of thiophene-expanded tricyclic nucleosides as potential antiviral therapeutics. In addition, their corresponding prodrugs were also pursued to probe...

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

"Everything you always wanted to know about MHC-E, but were afraid to ask.... is covered in this Nature Review, the result of a team effort together with Louis Picker here at OHSU and Andrew McMichael, Geraldine Gillespie and Persephone Borrow from University of Oxford. (continued)

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

Our Sacha Affiliate Lab, with their contributors, have recently published a new study where they explored the impact of obesity on the gut microbiome and microbial translocation (MT) biomarkers during HIV infection and antiretroviral therapy (ART). Amazing work done by all!

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

This study by Dr Hansen et al. demonstrates that CMV-based vaccines protect against SIV even when highly attenuated by deleting a glycoprotein essential for CMV entry. The remarkable ability to uncouple viral spreading from its immunogenicity is a unique feature of CMV based vectors and...

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

This recently published paper titled, "An immune-focused supplemental alignment pipeline captures information missed from dominant single-cell RNA-seq analyses, including allele-specific MHC-I regulation" showcases an incredible collaboration between between the VGTI Labs and Affiliate Labs.

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

There are currently no approved therapies or vaccines for Powassan virus infection. In this recent publication, our Hirsch lab and their contributors, developed a POW virus-like particle (POW-VLP) based vaccine adjuvanted with the novel synthetic Toll-like receptor 7/8 agonist INI-4001.

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

Our Hancock, Caposio, and Streblow Labs with their contributors, have recently published this review on the current understanding of HCMV latency. They focus on cross-cutting principles derived collectively from in vitro experimental culture models and in vivo animal models using the...

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute @vgti.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

In this incredible collaboration our Estes, Okoye, Axthelm, Hansen, Picker, Bimber affiliate and lab teams— present the RIRA, the first immune-focused macaque single-cell multi-tissue atlas. They contrasted transcriptional profiles against immune lineages, using...

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