Nguyen Group receives NIH grant

The Nguyen Group has received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) R01 grant from National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to support their carbohydrate vaccine adjuvant project which aims to provide long-term protective immunity against many infectious diseases. To achieve this goal often requires the addition of vaccine adjuvants, substances that boost the body's immune response to the vaccine. As a result, adjuvants are vital components in the global vaccine supply chain. Unfortunately, only a handful of substances are considered to be adjuvants of sufficient potency and acceptable toxicity for clinical use. The goal of our project focuses on the semi-synthesis and preclinical evaluation of carbohydrate saponins and their analogues, which hold promise as potent immunologic adjuvants with negligible toxicity for vaccine therapies. This project is a collaboration with Hien Nguyen's former colleague, Steve Varga, an immunologist at the University of Iowa, and Ying Hu, a biophysical chemist at the University of Illinois.