Институт иммунологии в Ла-Холле достиг исторических успехов в разработке вакцин и терапии рака

LA JOLLA – The research conducted at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology can be traced back to the first pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock. Since its founding nearly 40 years ago, the institute has become one of the world’s top independent vectors of research into the immune system’s role in some three dozen viral illnesses and diseases, spanning from influenza and measles to cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and ALS. President and CEO Erica Ollmann Saphire has led the institute since 2021. It’s not inaccurate to say that for Saphire, who can trace her family lineage back to the Mayflower, the entirety of American history has led to the research that she now oversees. “We have tools we never had before that let us understand and use complexity,” Saphire said. “It used to be, we couldn’t sequence everybody individually and find out how people differed, so you would just know that the medicine worked for some people and not for others, and you didn’t know why. … We can have that data now.” As of 2025, the institute has inked more than 300 licensing agreements, commercial partnerships and collaborations with pharmaceutical companies like Japan’s Kyowa Kirin; secured more than 130 patents; and helped seven drugs and medical technologies advance to clinical trials. The organization also supports more than 150 postdoctoral fellows and trainees and more than 130 laboratory technicians and support staff, with nearly 150,000 square feet of research space. HIV Vaccine Breakthrough In July, researchers at the institute, working in coordination with Scripps Research scientists and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, announced a potential breakthrough following 14 years of work between LJI and Scripps to develop an HIV vaccine. Pre-clinical data published in the journal Nature showed that the vaccine generated a high number of “broadly neutralizing” antibodies to combat the virus in primates. The vaccine intervenes in the maturation process of B cells, which begin to mature when they receive a signal from the body to produce antibodies specific to the molecular structure of a virus or other infecting pathogen. However, HIV can mutate and rapidly change its structure and is disguised by sugar molecules called glycans, which also cover normal human cells. As a result, the antibodies that B cells produce can become useless and ineffective almost immediately. “HIV is one of the biggest puzzles for the immune system,” Saphire said. “One of the reasons we’ve had a successful polio vaccine is there aren’t that many kinds of polio, and it doesn’t change that much, whereas HIV is this broad form of different sequences.” “Broadly neutralizing” antibodies have shown the potential to bind to HIV by recognizing the virus’ key structures even as the virus mutates. According to the institute, the researchers administered an initial “priming” vaccine to activate B cells in rhesus macaques followed by a series of booster shots to guide B cells toward becoming “broadly neutralizing.” Around 44% of the primates subsequently produced the required antibodies in abundant numbers. “When you’re infected with a virus, … you’re infected with a ramping up response, so the immune system has evolved to get better at things that are growing in time, and if you just get one big dump, you don’t get the same evolution of a better response,” Saphire said. “So they had to design what should the material in the vaccine be, and how do we deliver it to try to evolve for something complex and hard and rare.” Studying Sex-Based Differences Saphire joined the institute in 2019 after conducting research into the Lassa, Marburg and Ebola viruses that took her to parts of West Africa during the Ebola virus outbreak between 2013 and 2016. While Saphire spearheaded the use of cryo-electron microscopy to study viruses like measles and rabies in her lab, one of her largest contributions to the institute was the establishment of the Center for Sex-Based Differences in the Immune System in 2021. According to Saphire, researchers across the institute repeatedly observed differing immune responses between male and female subjects spanning across blood cells, lung disease, lab mice, reactions to the same vaccine dose and more. “It was interesting that it was in all the different labs in one way or another,” Saphire said. “That means there’s a signal here and it’s something probably true, and the fact that it was unexpected to all of us means it was understudied, this was an area ripe for exploration.” The institute received research grants last year from the nonprofit organization Women’s Health Access Matters to study sex-based differences in heart disease, brain health, autoimmune disease and cancer. LJI has also investigated the immunological meaning of the composition of menstrual blood. Blood from tissues like the endometrium in the uterus includes a different composition of T cells – a type of adaptive white blood cell – than blood circulating in veins that are closer to the skin. Up to 40% of the cells in menstrual blood can be T cells, according to research from the institute, which is also investigating the role of those T cells in the development of certain reproductive system infections and cancers, endometriosis, fertility and autoimmunity. “We can look at each individual (antibody) and understand how you could precision tune the immune system to get the ones you wanted,” Saphire said. “We have data we never had before. We have machines that can help us harness that into knowledge. We can go at things with precision scalpels instead of heavy cudgels.” Funding and Awards LJI averages some $2.63 million in grant funding per member of its faculty, a figure nearly triple the national average. Federal grants accounted for roughly two-thirds of the institute’s $82.77 million in revenue in 2025. Nearly 90% of the institute’s revenue went toward research-related expenses. Saphire argued that the institute is fortunate that even as federal research grant funding becomes more restrictive, LJI’s research is on topics that are of apolitical importance. “Everybody agrees cancer is bad, … nobody likes Ebola virus, nobody likes allergies or asthma, everybody thinks we should make advances against these things, everybody is on board with the immune system,” she said. “No matter your opinion on different things, everybody agrees the human immune system is a good thing, and understanding it is a better thing.” Saphire herself has been honored for her scientific research and leadership in the field of immunology. Earlier this year, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, along with LJI professor and President Emeritus Mitchell Kronenberg. Saphire and Kronenberg were among just eight immunologists and microbiologists elected to the academy in 2026 among a total class of more than 250 new members. John Adams, John Hancock and other Founding Fathers of the U.S. founded the academy in 1780. The academy’s first class included Benjamin Franklin and George Washington, and other members include Martin Luther King, Jr., virologist and polio vaccine inventor Jonas Salk and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. “To be part of a group that was founded by our forefathers,” Saphire said, “who, after writing the Declaration of Independence, said, ‘we’re going to need more than people with muskets, we’re going to need artists and scholars and poets,’ I still haven’t fully wrapped my head around it.” La Jolla Institute for Immunology FOUNDED: 1988 CEO: Erica Ollmann Saphire HEADQUARTERS: La Jolla BUSINESS: Research institute EMPLOYEES: 435 REVENUE: $82.77 million (2025) WEBSITE: lji.org(opens in new tab) CONTACT: [email protected] SOCIAL IMPACT: LJI launched the Coronavitus Immunotherapy Consortium in 2020 to unite academics, nonprofit organizations, biotechnology companies and major corporations to determine the antibodies that could potentially neutralize SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. NOTABLE: The institute is a partner of the global public-private Human Vaccines Project initiative. Eli is an award-winning reporter primarily covering the tech and life sciences industries. He previously worked as the San Diego City Hall reporter for the regional wire City News Service. He has also covered public health, transportation and state and local politics in the San Francisco Bay Area for Local News Matters, the nonprofit arm of the regional wire Bay City News Service, where he also oversaw the development and daily content management of the outlet’s public health and COVID-19 news and resource webpage. He is also a contributing writer covering Minor League Baseball for the analysis and commentary website Baseball Prospectus. Eli is a graduate of San Francisco State University and a native of Northern California.