# Human and rhesus macaque B-cell and serum antibody repertoires

> **NIH NIH P01** · BOSTON CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL · 2021 · $560,000

## Abstract

Summary
Project 1, Moody
The overall goal of the research program is to design immunogens that elicit a broadly neutralizing response
Influenza remains a persistent global health threat requiring surveillance of circulating strains. The primary
method of preventing influenza infection is vaccination, and in the last two decades, the recommendations
for influenza vaccination have been expanded to include almost all people in the US. In a study of recipients of
the 2008 trivalent influenza vaccine, we found that the response to influenza vaccination had subtype
dominance: most of the responses in any particular individual were directed to a single component of the
multivalent vaccine, and included responses to the hemagglutinin (HA) receptor binding site (RBS). We have
now found that this dominant response derived from B cells descended from those elicited by the influenza
strain circulating when these adults were infants, suggesting that an early influenza exposure may affect the
outcome of later responses ("imprinting"). Investigating these observations has public health implications for
the use of various influenza vaccines in infants and adults. Project 1 will test the hypotheses that (i) imprinting
of the immune system by early infection with influenza results in subtype dominance in subsequent responses,
but that (ii) early vaccination with multivalent vaccine in infants can prime the immune system to produce
responses to multiple strains that persist across vaccine seasons and that can remain balanced even after an
infection later in life, and (iii) that immunization with HAs designed to stimulate clonal lineages of RBS
antibodies can modify an imprinted response. We will investigate these hypotheses in humans and rhesus
macaques (RMs).

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10229502
- **Project number:** 5P01AI089618-10
- **Recipient organization:** BOSTON CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** Michael Anthony Moody
- **Activity code:** P01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $560,000
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2011-08-01 → 2023-04-06

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10229502

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10229502, Human and rhesus macaque B-cell and serum antibody repertoires (5P01AI089618-10). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10229502. Licensed CC0.

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