Vaccine Development

Abstract

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen that causes life-threatening infections, especially in the critically ill, immunocompromised patients, and patients with the genetic disorder cystic fibrosis.  A vaccine would be ideal to circumvent this problem; however, no vaccine is available. 

We, in the Jennings Lab at the University of Montana, have identified several promising target antigens on P. aeruginosa. We hypothesize that immunizing against these target antigens will provide durable, broad protective immunity against diverse P. aeruginosa isolates. Our goal is to design and test the efficacy of a vaccine to prevent P. aeruginosa infections.

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Impact: This work will define the role of target antigens in infection pathogenesis. If successful, this work could lead to the first effective vaccine against P. aeruginosa.