Laurent Verkoczy PhD

Dr. Verkoczy and his group joined ABS in its early stages and established its vaccine research and development arm by bringing a vigorous in vivo immunology research program. In addition, Dr. Verkoczy has entered into close collaborations with Dr.Smider’s group and several industry partners. Previously, Dr.Verkoczy was an Associate Professor of Medicine and Pathology at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI), as well as Director of the Laboratory of B-cell Immunoregulation and the Mouse Immunology Core at DHVI. Dr.Verkoczy obtained his Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Toronto in 2000 and completed post-doctoral studies at the Scripps Research Institute in 2005. He serves as a reviewer for numerous reputable scientific journals and serves as a B-cell immunology editor for Vaccines and Frontiers in Immunology. Dr.Verkoczy also participates on multiple NIH review panels that either evaluate basic programs or business grants seeking to develop broad-coverage anti-viral vaccines.

The Verkoczy lab at ABS currently focuses on three research areas: i) identifying signaling pathways controlling activation and maturation of B-cells expressing the precursors of broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs), ii) using this information to develop vaccine strategies to reliably induce bnAb responses to challenging pathogens, including HIV, and iii) genetically engineering improvements in current in vivo models, in order to more rapidly and systematically identify and optimize lead vaccine regimens.