A $50 million grant over 10 years from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will establish the Stanford Human Systems Immunology Center, which aims to better understand how the immune system can be harnessed to develop vaccines for the world's most deadly infectious diseases.
The work funded through the new center will enable researchers in diverse fields of study at Stanford and other institutions to use advanced immunological tools to understand how vaccines protect and to help prioritize the most promising vaccines for clinical trials.
The researchers also plan to analyze why some people are able to effectively fight off pathogens, while others remain vulnerable. For instance, many millions of people are carriers of the tuberculosis bacteria, yet fewer than 10% develop active disease, according to the press release.
The center will be led by Mark Davis of Stanford's School of Medicine and will also involve faculty in the School of Engineering.
