Researchers will scan the landscape of plasmablasts, the first antibody-producing, B-type immune cells that respond to MMR infection.

The project aims to design computational “tool kits” that can speed development of multi-virus vaccines targeting some of the greatest infectious threats to human health.

Crowe and his colleagues have developed cutting-edge technologies to isolate and study antiviral antibodies.

A close cousin of Ebola, the Marburg virus is transmitted by fruit bats and by exposure to body fluids from infected individuals. There currently are no approved treatments or vaccines for MVD, which has a roughly 50% fatality rate.

The discovery, reported in the journal PLOS Pathogens, could help open the door to the development of effective vaccines and antibody therapies with an “exceptional breadth of pathogen coverage.”

Developed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, ReVAMPP will support a coordinating center and seven research centers, including VUMC, with a focus on nine virus groups that pose the greatest risk to human health.

VUMC’s antibody collaboration with the DOD goes back to 2018, when the medical center signed a five-year cooperative agreement with the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop protective treatments that can be rushed to health care providers within weeks after a viral outbreak.