Ted Ross, PhD

Research Interest

Dr. Ross conducts research in vaccinology, immunology and virology with emphasis on vaccine development. His focus is designing vaccines against viral pathogens such as influenza, dengue, zika, chikungunya, HIV, respiratory syncytial viruses. With emphasis on designing vaccines for various ages (neonates, elderly) and vaccines associated with immunocompromised and pregnant individuals. Dr. Ross’ team has established pre-clinical models of seasonal and pandemic influenza virus infections and vaccination for H1, H2, H3, H5, H7, H9, and influenza B, as well as age-related, pre-existing immunity, and transmission models. In addition, we have designed pre-clinical models for dengue, zika, chikungunya, rift valley fever virus, respiratory syncytial virus infections. Dr. Ross’ laboratory is using these models to understand the pathogenesis of these diseases and test preventive vaccines and treatments. Lastly, Dr. Ross’ team has established clinical vaccination models and cohorts to study influenza, dengue, yellow fever and zika virus infections in people from the age of 2 to 90 years of age, as well in pregnant women. Immunological, proteomic, genomic, metabolomics assessments of human samples collected following vaccination.

Lab Focus

1. Development of Broadly Reactive Vaccines using computationally optimized broadly reactive antigen (COBRA) modeling. Influenza, HIV, Dengue.

2. Modeling Immunity to BSL3 Biodefense agents and influenza pathogens.

3. Influenza VLP-based vaccines for seasonal and pandemic influenza.

4. Pathogenicity/Genomic Modeling of influenza infection in neonatal/adult/elderly ferrets and humans.

5. Evaluation of human clinical samples following influenza vaccination.

6. Multiclade Consensus Env VLP AIDS vaccine.

7. Using C3d adjuvants in a DNA vaccine to enhance the immunogenicity to HIV/SIV, RVFV, Dengue, West Nile, Chikungunya virus envelopes.

8. Development and testing pandemic H5N1, H1N1, H7N9 subtypes.

Recent Publications

Kirchenbaum GA, Allen JD, Layman TS, Sautto GA, Ross TM. Infection of ferrets with influenza virus elicits a light chain biased antibody response against hemagglutinin. 2017. J. Immunol. 199(11):3798-3807.

Nuñez IA, Carlock MA, Allen JD, Owino SO, Moehling K, Nowalk MP, Diagle K, Sweeney K, Mundle S, Vogel TU, Delagrave S, Ramagopol M, Zimmerman RK, Kleanthous H, Ross TM. Impact of age and pre-existing influenza immunity in humans on the elicitation of anti-hemagglutinin antibodies receiving split inactivated influenza vaccines. 2017. PLoS One. 12(11). E0185666.

Carter DM, Darby CA, Johnson SK, Carlock MA, Kirchenbaum GA, Allen, JD, Vogel TU, Delagrave S, DiNapoli J, Alefantis, T, Kleanthous H, Ross TM. Elicitation of protective antibodies against a broad panel of H1N1 viruses in ferrets pre-immune to historical H1N1 influenza viruses. 2017. J Virol. 91(24). In press.

Wong TM, Bebin-Blackwell A-G., Allen JD, Park B, Carter DM, Kleanthous H, Alefantis, T, Ross TM. H3 COBRA hemagglutinin vaccines elicit antibodies with hemagglutinin-inhibition (HAI) activity against a diverse panel of H3N2 influenza viruses. 2017. J Virol. 91:24. In press.

Wong TM, Bebin-Blackwell A-G., Allen JD, Park B, Carter DM, Kleanthous H, Alefantis, T, Ross TM. H3 COBRA hemagglutinin vaccines elicit antibodies with hemagglutinin-inhibition (HAI) activity against a diverse panel of H3N2 influenza viruses. 2017. J Virol. 91:24. In press.

Kirchenbaum GA, Ross TM. Generation of Monoclonal Antibodies against Immunoglobulin Proteins of the Domestic Ferret (Mustela purtorius furo). J Immunol Res. 2017. 199:5874572

Lee J, Boutz DR, Chromikova V, Joyce MG, Vollmers C, Leung K, Horton AP, DeKosky BJ, Lee CH, Lavinder JJ, Murrin EM, Chrysostomou C, Hoi KH, Tsybovsky Y, Thomas PV, Druz A, Zhang B, Zhang Y, Wang L, Kong WP, Park D, Popova LI, Dekker CL, Davis MM, Carter CE, Ross TM, Ellington AD, Wilson PC, Marcotte EM, Mascola JR, Ippolito GC, Krammer F, Quake SR, Kwong PD, Georgiou G. Molecular-level analysis of the serum antibody repertoire in young adults before and after seasonal influenza vaccination. Nat Med. 2016. 22(12):1456-1464.

Wong TM Petrovsky N, Bissel SM, Wiley CM, and Ross TM. Delta inulin-derived adjuvants that elicit Th1 phenotype following vaccination reduces viral lung titers without a reduction in lung immunopathology. 2016. Hum Vacc Immunother. 12:8. 1-10.

Carter DM, Darby CA, Lefoley BC, Crevar CJ, Alefantis T, Oomen R, Anderson SF, Strugnell T, Cortés-Garcia G, Vogel TU, Parrington M, Kleanthous H, Ross TM. Design and Characterization of a Computationally Optimized Broadly Reactive Hemagglutinin vaccine for H1N1 influenza viruses. COBRA HA vaccine. 2016. J Virol. 90(9):4720-4723.

Arévalo MA*, Wong TM*, Ross TM. Expression and Purification of Virus-Like Particles for Vaccination. 2016. J Vis Exp. (112). doi: 10.3791/54041

Arévalo MA*, Wong TM*, Ross TM. Expression and Purification of Virus-Like Particles for Vaccination. 2016. J Vis Exp. (112). doi: 10.3791/54041

Crevar CJ, Carter DM, Lee KYJ, and Ross TM. Cocktail of H5N1 COBRA HA Vaccines Elicit Antibodies against H5N1 Viruses from Multiple Clades. 2014. Hum Vacc Immunother. 11(3):572-583.

Carter DM, Crevar CJ, Kirchenbaum GA, Tsvetnitsky V, Rudenko L, Ross TM. Cross-Protection against H7N9 influenza strains using a live-attenuated H7N3 virus vaccine. 2015. Vaccine. 33:108-116.

Linderman SL, Chambers BS, Zost SJ, Li Y, Herrmann C, Ellebedy, AH, Carter DM, Andrews SF, Zheng NY, Huang M, Huang Y, Strauss D, Shaz BH, Hodinka RL, Ross TM, Wilson PC, Ahmed R, Bloom JD, Hensley SE. Antigenic explanation for atypical H1N1 infections among middle-aged adults. 2014. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 111:15798-17803.

Khurana S, Coyle EM, Verma S, King LR, Manischewitz J, Crevar CJ, Carter DM, Ross TM, Golding H. H5 N-terminal B sheet promtes oligomerization of H7-HA1 that induces better antibody affinity maturation and enhanced protection against H7N7 and H7N9 viruses compared to inactivated influenza vaccine. 2014. Vaccine. 32:6421-6432.

Evans JE, Tang XC, Lu HR, Olagnier D, Kirchenbaum GK, Ross TM. Effective Tetravalent Subviral Particle Vaccine against Dengue Virus. 2014. J Vacc & Immunotech. 1:1-7.

Ross TM, Pereira L, Luckay A, McNicholl J, Garcia-Lerma G, Eugene HS, Pierce-Paul BR, Zhang J, Hendry M, Smith JM. A polyvalent Clade B VLP HIV Vaccine Combined with Partially Protective Truvada Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (VaxPrEP) Prevents SHIV infection in Macaques. 2014. AIDS Res Human Retro. 30:1072-1081.

DeGroot AS, Moise L, Liu R, Gutierrez AH, Terry F, Koita OA, Ross TM, Martin W. Cross-conservation of T-cell epitopes: Now even more relevant to (H7N9) influenza vaccine design. Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2014. 10:256-262.

Ross, TM, Lin CJ, Nowalk MP, H HH, Spencer SM, Shay DK, Sambhara S, Sundaram ME, Freidrich T, Sauereisen S, Bloom CE, Zimmerman RK. Influenza of pre-existing hemagglutination-inhibition titers against historical influenza strains on antibody response to inactivated trivalent influenza vaccine in adults 50-80 years of age. 2014. Hum Vaccin Immunother. 10(5):In press.

Ross TM, Moncla LH, Dinis JM, Weinfurter JT, Mortimer TD, Schultz-Darken N, Brunner K, Capuano SV, Boettcher C, Post J, Johnson M, Bloom CE, Weiler AM, Friedrich TC. A novel nonhuman primate model for influenza transmission. 2013. PLoS One. 8:e78750

Eugene HS, Pierce BP, Craigo JK, Ross TM. A consensus Group M trimerized envelope elicits protective immune responses in non-human primates against heterologous SHIVSF162p4 infection. 2013. Virol J. 10:102.1186/1743-422X-10-102.

Carter DM, Bloom CE, Nascimento EJ, Marques ETA, Craigo JK, Cherry JL, Lipman DJ, Ross TM. Sequential Ferret H1N1 influenza infection in ferrets elicits neutralizing antibodies to emerging H1N1 isolates. 2013. J Virol. 87(2). 1400-1410.

PubMed

Complete List of Published Work in PUBMED

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