May 15th – 19th, 2017

iCubed, 80 Washington Street 

Providence RI, United States

The Institute for Immunology and Informatics (iCubed) will once again be hosting our training workshop in vaccine design for Neglected Tropical Diseases and Emerging Infectious Diseases (NTD/EID)

This May, the Institute for Immunology and Informatics (iCubed) will once again be hosting a training workshop in vaccine design for neglected tropical diseases and emerging infectious diseases (NTD/EID). This workshop will give interested researchers an opportunity to bring a research topic of their choice to Providence, RI and to work one-on-one on the topic with the developers and expert users of the iVAX Toolkit. 

The iVAX Toolkit has been developed and refined by EpiVax, Inc., and it is available for collaborative research projects under agreement with iCubed. Previous NTD/EID fellows have worked on leishmania, cysticercosis, Chagas disease, hepatitis C (genotype IV), and PRRSV.

A few of the publications that resulted from previous workshops are shown here:

1. An immunoinformatic approach for identification of Trypanosoma cruzi HLA-A2-restricted CD8(+) T cell epitopes.
2. Preclinical development of HIvax: Human survivin highly immunogenic vaccines.
3. Identification and retrospective validation of T-cell epitopes in the hepatitis C virus genotype 4 proteome: an accelerated approach toward epitope-driven vaccine development.
4. Time for T? Immunoinformatics addresses vaccine design for neglected tropical and emerging infectious diseases.
5. Development and validation of an epitope prediction tool for swine (PigMatrix) based on the pocket profile method

Over the course of the week-long workshop, NTD/EID research fellows will learn to apply these state-of-the-art informatics tools to their project of choice, and learn a better understanding of how to use the iVAX toolkit to design vaccines. Fellows will train at iCubed and then return to their home institutions to proceed with their projects. They will have continued support from the iVAX team at URI to sustain their projects as needed, until the project has been completed. Access to the tools and expertise is provided at no extra cost. 

 Space is limited! Only six NTD/EID fellows will be selected from the list of applicants, based on the applicant’s current involvement in research on neglected tropical diseases, prior doctoral or equivalent training in immunology (or a related area in the vaccine development field) and documented commitment from the applicant’s home institution to their research career. The fellows will be expected to generate data and publications after the training, and to submit grants for research using the toolkit.

Scholarships are not yet available for this workshop. The all-inclusive cost for food, course materials and lodging for the week is $2,225*. To apply, please provide the following information:

• A description of the fellow’s work, including proposed application of the iVAX toolkit to their research program (maximum two paragraphs).
• Curriculum Vitae.
• 2 letters of support from the fellow’s research mentor at their home institution.

All application materials should be sent electronically to Matt Parrillo at mparrillo.uri@gmail.com by March 1, 2017.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Annie De Groot MD
CEO/CSO EpiVax and

Professor and Director,
Institute for Immunology and Informatics.

*Organizational costs, course materials, food and accommodation for five days/four nights (in local hotels) for the fellows. The price of the workshop can be adjusted if lower-cost housing (e.g. AirBnB) is identified.