PROJECT SUMMARY – CORE E Virologic and Immunologic Sample Acquisition Core (VISAC) Preparedness for the next pandemic relies upon improved understanding of both emerging viruses and the human immunologic response to these pathogens. Identification of immunogens and evaluation of T and B cell repertoires from a diverse population is key to development of successful vaccine candidates and monoclonal antibody therapeutics. These efforts require the collection of specialized immunologic specimens from people exposed to pathogens of interest, in addition to isolation of the pathogen itself. The VISAC Core will support all five Research Projects. Characterizing the host response to a prototype virus from a given viral family can elucidate broadly applicable mechanisms by which the human immune response can be primed to protect against other emerging viruses related to the prototype pathogen through vaccination, or protection can be passively conveyed through the selection and administration of highly effective cross-neutralizing antibodies. The creation of vaccines and therapeutics against pathogens with pandemic potential relies on identifying immune correlates, and evaluating the durability, of protection of the systemic and mucosal immune response. Led by Drs. Kevin Messacar (VISAC Scientific PL) and David Kimberlin (VISAC Operational PL), the NIH- funded “Pandemic Response Repository: Microbial and Immunologic Surveillance and Epidemiology,” or PREMISE, pilot study has demonstrated proof-of-principle for the feasibility and utility of creating immunologic biorepositories to drive development of vaccine candidates and monoclonal antibody therapeutics for emerging pathogens. The approach used in PREMISE, which will be applied in the Virologic and Immunologic Sample Acquisition Core (VISAC), involves the creation of overlapping longitudinal cohorts of children from regions likely to experience primary infection with a pathogen. The VISAC will expand the geographic scope of PREMISE significantly to provide a unique biorepository of specialized biological specimens from people exposed to prototype pathogens of interest to support the BP4 Center’s, as well as other ReVAMPP centers’, basic and translational science work. This biorepository will consist of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells, serum, plasma, and crevicular fluid from diverse longitudinal cohorts of people from geographic regions across three continents likely to be exposed to the selected viruses, as well as ongoing sampling of contemporary strains of selected viruses through detection of viral shedding during symptomatic illness to ensure the prototype pathogen approaches pursued apply to newly or more recently circulating viral strains.