Message from the
Director

The Kirkpatrick Lab and the Vaccine Testing Center have two main areas of research interest: Vaccine Development and Infectious Disease Immunology.

Vaccine Development

Our team runs a fully functioning unit for performing phase I and II vaccine trials and enteric challenge models at the Vaccine Testing Center (VTC). In general, the VTC focuses on the development of vaccines of importance to global health, including typhoid fever, Campylobacter infections and dengue viral diseases. In 2009, the VTC began a 5- year project with Johns Hopkins University to study new Dengue and West Nile Vaccines. Other collaborators have included biotech companies, the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense.

Our laboratories are outfitted for scaled-up clinical immunology and microbiology work. Our staff is trained in current Good Clinical Practices (GCP) according to FDA E9 specifications and the laboratory operates on Good Laboratory Practices-like (GLP) principles. Laboratories have the capacity for performing the immunogenicity work for multi-site vaccine trials, including specimen processing and storage. We also have the flexibility to add study-specific assays needed for vaccine trials. A detailed description of available equipment is available upon request. Experienced technicians are trained to perform validated immunologic and microbiology assays including: ELISAs, ELISPOT/ ASC/ ALS assays, functional assays of opsonization, PCR, multi-parameter flow cytometry and cell sorting, cytokine analysis (Bioplex), confocal microscopy, plaque-based assays for viral pathogens, bacterial culturing, and inoculum preparation for challenge studies.

Infectious Disease Immunology

In addition to vaccine testing, the lab is interested in characterizing how the human host responds immunologically to clinically important infectious agents and vaccines. The goal of this work is to gain a better understanding of immunologic responses to vaccines as well as natural infections.

For details about recruitment for ongoing studies see Volunteer for Research.