Tatevik Antonyan is a research scholar who has been working at Institute for Molecular Medicine for about 5 years. The Institute for Molecular Medicine is a small non-profit scientific organization in California. Nevertheless, its work has drawn the attention of the National Institutes of Health in the United States, which have been a significant source of funding. The Institute also received awards from the Alzheimer’s Association and Susan Komen foundation.
We spoke with Tatevik about her current research, her advice for young scientists, and more…
– Thanks for speaking with us, Tatevik! Firstly, please do tell us a bit about your current work…
– I am a research scholar at the Institute for Molecular Medicine, CA, leading an NIH-funded project focused on developing B-cell epitope-based vaccines against the Sars-Cov2 virus which causes COVID-19 disease. Additionally, I actively involved the project with developing generations of AAV-PHP.eB viruses (from Caltech) expressing anti-Aβ or anti-Tau antibodies, which is a new antibody-based therapeutics for Alzheimer’s disease and various tauopathies that are specifically engineered to cross the human blood-brain barrier.
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– What is the main focus of your current research?
– COVID-19 caused by coronavirus Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoV-2 (SARS-CoV-2 or CoV-2), is an extremely urgent problem. This virus predominantly infects the lower airways.
The high fatality rate is associated with various serious underlying medical conditions and likely age-associated deterioration of the immunity, known as immunosenescence.
To generate an effective preventive SARS-CoV2 vaccine for the immunocompromised elderly, we propose to use our novel universal MultiTEP platform vaccine technology developed by our group for Alzheimer’s Disease (AD).
An anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccine based on this technology will augment antiviral antibody production through activation of not only naïve Th cells but also pre-existing memory Th cells which will be especially beneficial for elderly patients with immunosenescence.
– What is it about your field of work that excites you most?
– Contributing to groundbreaking work in the field of medicine and helping the health and wellbeing of people. I always look out for and learn new and better approaches and technologies that help me do a better job.
– What advice would you give to a young life scientist just starting out in their career?
– Follow your passion. Be ready to learn from anyone who can offer you advice. Teamwork and collaboration are especially important for success.
Thank you so much for a fantastic interview, Tatevik! We wish you all the best with your continued research.
Contributing to groundbreaking work in the field of medicine and helping the health and wellbeing of people. I always look out for and learn new and better approaches and technologies that help me do a better job.
Mariam Ghazaryan
