June 26, 2020

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Fast-tracking the development of treatments and ensuring early selection of a promising one depends on your ability to identify significant correlates during both pre-clinical and clinical phases.

In this webinar, we use case studies to show the importance of a multi-disciplinary systems approach in the identification of these correlates.

 

To view the webinar, click here

Understanding both pathogen and host, and their interactions, is essential to fully assess the effect of infectious diseases. The gold standard for diagnosis of an infection has been to demonstrate the presence of pathogen. However, disease severity, progression, as well as the response to treatment is often more dependent on the status of the host. Therefore, an appropriately detailed assessment of the host response will substantially inform the evaluation of antimicrobial prophylactics and therapeutics.

The immune response is complex and collaborative. A robust immune response requires multiple cell lineages and soluble factors to work in concert. The immune response, however, can be influenced by multiple host factors including co-morbidities, levels of immune competence, type of immune response and age of the host. These factors are often meaningfully represented in specific at-risk populations and therefore need to be accounted for in development programs. All of these factors are prevalent in the high-risk groups susceptible to the COVID19 pandemic, and age and immune function have been shown to be factors affecting vaccination generally. Furthermore, the immune correlates of protection necessary for successful vaccine development may not be the same as those required for successful therapy development.  A multi-disciplinary systems approach for the measurement of the host response is thus required to successfully address all these variables.

This presentation will support this argument by drawing examples from our extensive previous experience identifying infectious disease biomarkers in pre-clinical and clinical trial settings for diagnostic, disease progression, or treatment response applications using a variety of platforms. The case studies will survey identification of predictive biomarkers of disease progression and response to vaccination, as well as cellular and soluble protein correlates of vaccine response.

Speaker: Eustache Paramithiotis PhD, Vice-President, Research & Development, Caprion Biosciences Inc.