Misplaced Pages

Nancy Sullivan (biologist)

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
American cell biologist
Nancy J. Sullivan
Sullivan in 2015
BornNancy Jean Sullivan
Alma materHarvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (ScD, MS) Merrimack College (BS)
Known forViral immunology, vaccine development, filovirus biology
Scientific career
FieldsCell biology, Virology, Immunology
InstitutionsNational Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL) at Boston University
ThesisDeterminants of HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein-mediated fusion and antibody neutralization (1997)
Doctoral advisorJoseph Sodroski
Websitehttps://www.bu.edu/neidl/profile/nancy-j-sullivan/

Nancy Jean Sullivan is an American cell biologist, virologist, and immunologist. She has served as the director of the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL) at Boston University since December 2022. Previously, she was chief of the Biodefense Research Section at the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) in the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

Sullivan was awarded the 2020 Science, Technology, and Environment Service to America Medal for the development of ansuvimab, an FDA-approved monoclonal antibody for the treatment of Ebola virus disease.

Education

Sullivan completed a Doctor of Science from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 1997. She conducted a dissertation in the laboratory of Joseph Sodroski, where her work demonstrated that primary HIV isolates exhibit resistance to antibody neutralization due to occlusion of the co-receptor binding site on the envelope glycoprotein GP120. Sullivan then pursued postdoctoral training under the guidance of Gary Nabel, studying the mechanisms of Ebola virus pathogenesis and immune protection.

Career

Research

This article contains promotional content. Please help improve it by removing promotional language and inappropriate external links, and by adding encyclopedic text written from a neutral point of view. (January 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
This section needs to be updated. The reason given is: Missing significant contributions to research on non-Ebola filoviruses as well as SARS-CoV-2. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.
Last update: 1 April 2020 (January 2025)

Sullivan’s research is on the immunologic correlates and mechanisms of protection against infection by hemorrhagic fever viruses including Ebola virus. Her work on filovirus immunology and vaccine development is widely considered as one of the very best in the field despite the difficulties of conducting research under highly specialized BSL-4 containment conditions. Sullivan’s innovative and specialized work on filovirus immunology is recognized worldwide and has consistently been the source of novel observations that have contributed to critical advancements in the field.

Sullivan’s long-term commitment to Ebola research has resulted in discovery of both vaccines and therapies. By using a novel gene-based prime boost vaccine, Sullivan and her team were the first to demonstrate vaccine protection against Ebola infection in primates. This was followed by her discovery of a single shot vaccine that provided more immediate protection, making it a very practical vaccine that could be used in the face of an acute Ebola epidemic. As a result, this vaccination schedule is now standard in the field of Ebola vaccine research, where one of the lead Ebola vaccine candidates, ChAd3-EBOV, has been advanced to Phase I/II and III human clinical trials. More recently, Sullivan and her team discovered a potently protective monoclonal antibody, mAb114, from a human Ebola survivor that completely rescues Ebola-infected primates, even when given as a monotherapy several days after their Ebola exposure.

References

  1. "Nancy J. Sullivan | National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories". www.bu.edu. Retrieved 2025-01-12.
  2. "Nancy J. Sullivan, Ph.D." Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals. Retrieved 2025-01-12.
  3. Check Hayden, Erika (2016-02-26). "Ebola survivor's blood holds promise of new treatment". Nature. doi:10.1038/nature.2016.19440. ISSN 1476-4687.
  4. Sullivan, Nancy Jean (1997). Determinants of HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein-mediated fusion and antibody neutralization (Thesis). OCLC 80629154.
  5. ^ "Nancy Sullivan, Ph.D. | NIH: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases". www.niaid.nih.gov. Retrieved 2020-04-01.Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
Public Domain This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Institutes of Health. Categories: