Multi-disciplinary Measurement of Host Biomarkers and Correlates in Infection and Immunity

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 and 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 in general. 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 therefore required to successfully address all of 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 the vaccine response.

Speaker

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

Dr. Paramithiotis has formal training in immunology (PhD, McGill University 1994; postdoctoral, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1997) and extensive experience in large-scale biology with emphasis on infectious disease, immunology, cancer, and metabolic disease. His expertise in translational medicine, in particular biomarker discovery and validation, includes the establishment of analytical and clinical validation programs and commercialization. Dr. Paramithiotis is a seasoned senior manager and has been the principle investigator of several privately and publicly funded multi-year programs. Currently at Caprion, he is responsible for large-scale collaborative programs, programs that lead to development of new service offerings, and for the discovery and advancement of biomarkers with clinical application potential.

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