Crowe Lab News

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the University of Oxford have determined how a human monoclonal antibody isolated at Vanderbilt in 2021 can prevent infection by the potentially lethal Sin Nombre virus.

James Crowe Jr., MD, third from left, director of the Vanderbilt Center for Antibody Therapeutics, was among those to receive 2023 Advocacy Awards from Research!America at the biomedical research advocacy organization’s annual awards program in Washington, D.C. Crowe received the Building the Foundation Award for his team’s role in developing human monoclonal antibodies against COVID-19.

Vanderbilt was part of a multi-center team that resurrected a “dead antibody” to reveal the mysteries of cytochrome c, a versatile protein that is an essential part of the cell’s energy-generating capacity, and of life itself.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, in collaboration with Takeda Inc., have reported a major advance in understanding and potentially preventing dengue, a devastating, mosquito-borne tropical viral infection that is spreading across the globe.

Nine current faculty members of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine have made this year’s list of scientists whose papers have been cited most frequently by other researchers, including James Crowe Jr., MD, Ann Scott Carell Professor, professor of Pediatrics and Pathology, Microbiology & Immunology, who has pioneered development of monoclonal antibodies to prevent and treat viral diseases including COVID-19.

COVID-19 treatments work—but immunocompromised individuals may not produce as strong an immune response. Evusheld became the first treatment to protect this group before exposure to the virus when it received emergency authorization from the FDA in December 2021. The antibody therapy—made by AstraZeneca and given by injection to people at high risk of developing serious disease if they get COVID-19—is a combination of two monoclonal antibodies that soak up virus proteins to prevent them from infecting healthy cells. There is a downside of antibody-based treatments like Evusheld, however: viruses can mutate to become resistant to them. The FDA has warned that the therapy might not be as effective with newer Omicron variants compared to previous strains of SARS-CoV-2.

A long-acting antibody combination discovered at Vanderbilt University Medical Center that protects against COVID-19 in high-risk individuals, and which was optimized and developed by the global pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, has received a gold medal in the 2022 R&D 100 awards program announced Aug. 22 by R&D World Magazine.