Onyeka Chukwudozie receives Curci Ph.D. Fellows Award to advance Lassa virus vaccines

Infectious disease researcher Onyeka Chukwudozie, a Graduate Student at UC San Diego and member of the Saphire Lab at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) has received a prestigious Curci Ph.D. Fellows Award from the Shurl and Kay Curci Foundation. This two-year fellowship will support Chukwudozie’s research into how human antibodies target and neutralize Lassa virus.

Onyeka Chukwudozie, a Graduate Student at UC San Diego and member of the Saphire Lab at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (Image credit: Matthew Ellenbogen)

“This fellowship is a really exciting opportunity,” says Chukwudozie. “This support may help us provide better information on how to design vaccines against Lassa virus.”

Lassa virus fever was first diagnosed in northern Nigeria in 1969. The virus, which is spread by rodents, is now endemic in West Africa. The disease has a mortality rate of 15 percent in severe cases—up to 90 percent in pregnant women—and causes deafness in a quarter of survivors.

Over time, Lassa virus has split into different “lineages,” similar to how a family tree splits off into genetically related branches. These lineages have mutations to help them evade the immune system.

“Current experimental vaccines don’t offer the same protection against all lineages,” says Chukwudozie. “To design better vaccines, we need more information on how immune cells respond to these different lineages.”

Partnering with international experts

Chukwudozie was raised in Nigeria, and he has pursued research partnerships around the globe. He spent part of 2023 investigating the immunogenicity of Lassa virus vaccine alongside scientists at Imperial College of London, with support from the Merkin Graduate Fellows Program at UC San Diego. 

Chukwudozie says the Curci Ph.D. Fellows Award will help support his ongoing collaborations with Nigerian scientists and physicians. He is already working closely with scientists and physicians at the Center for Human and Zoonotic virology lab at the University of Lagos Medical School, to study how the human immune system targets different Lassa virus lineages.

Chukwudozie’s work will focus on lineages I, II, III, and VI which circulate in Nigeria. He plans to make additional trips to Nigeria to collaborate with local experts and process samples from patients infected with different viral lineages.

Once back in San Diego, Chukwudozie will harness biochemical and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) and neutralization assays—and work with LJI’s Flow Cytometry Core and Cryo-Electron Microscope Core to investigate how human antibodies can recognize and attack these different Lassa virus lineages. Chukwudozie will also adopt the Carterra LSA, which is a high throughput platform for characterizing monoclonal antibodies, and he will use an LJI’s Beacon Optofluidic System for monoclonal antibody discovery.

Working toward pandemic preparedness

The Saphire Lab, helmed by LJI Professor, President & CEO Erica Ollmann Saphire, Ph.D., MBA, leads important efforts to develop broad vaccines that could provide immunity against many viruses at once. Chukwudozie’s findings may help guide efforts toward a “pan-Lassa virus” vaccine that offers immunity against all lineages. 

Chukwudozie also hopes to shed light on how antibodies can target the wider Arenaviridae family. Eight viruses from this family can infect humans, including lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus, which can cause deadly cases of meningitis.

To learn more about potential antibody responses, Chukwudozie plans to compare immune responses in people given current experimental Lassa vaccines versus people who experienced natural Lassa virus infection. “I think this approach may also shed more light on other viruses,” he says.

Learn more:

LJI Center for Vaccine Innovation

Immune Matters article: Delivering better vaccines