Speakers

Biography

Pirouz Daftarian has over 20 yrs of experience in academia, biopharma, and CRO in immuno-oncology and vaccines. He completed his Ph.D. and postdoctoral at U of Ottawa, UBC, and the City of Hope. He then joined IMV a vaccine company, and led the pre-clinical immuno-oncology as the Head cancer biologist. He then joined U. Miami's Miller School of Medicine as an assistant. Professor and the Director of Biological Modifiers Core Facility, (2007-2015). He then NGM Biopharmaceutical and then JSRLS., before U of Miami. He has over 90 peer-reviewed papers, and acted as a reviewer of DOD, NIH, NCI, and several journals.

Abstract

Dendrimers decorated with the HLA-DR epitope, PADRE, comprise a vaccine platform (PDD). This modified platform can deliver high quantities of conjugated cargo specifically to MHC class II-expressing antigen-presenting cells (APCs), including dendritic cells, macrophages, and B cells of multiple species. Here, the PDD platform is conjugated to a hapten, cocaine, demonstrating durable anti-hapten immunity. PDD vaccine generates high-affinity cocaine antibodies without the need for an adjuvant. Adjuvant formulations of the PDD vaccine do not increase further anti-cocaine titer levels. PDD-elicited anti-cocaine antibody response attenuates the rewarding effects of cocaine in adult male Sprague-Dawley rats.