Mentor: Rock Mancini, Ph.D.

Adjuvants are compounds supplemented into vaccinations to enhance their immunogenicity (i.e., ability to stimulate the immune response).1 Unfortunately, they often also increase their reactogenicity (i.e., production of adverse events post-vaccination) with pyrexia remaining one of the most reported adverse events of adjuvanted influenza vaccines.2 Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) is a thermo-responsive polymer that undergoes a phase transition around a lower critical solution temperature (LCST) which can be engineered to occur within physiological range (35-39 °C).3 Its incorporation into a vaccine adjuvant may permit thermal-based attenuation of the immunological response upon onset of pyrexia, improving the safety profiles of the adjuvant and associated vaccinations. Trehalose-6,6’-dibehenate (TDB) is a MINCLE receptor agonist that can be synthetically conjugated to PNIPAM.4 Incubation of the TDB-PNIPAM polymer adjuvants with HEK-mMINCLE cells provides a method for assessing the thermal attenuation activity of the adjuvants in response to pyrexial temperatures.

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