The Master's Level Graduate Research Conference is supported by the Office of Graduate Studies.

2012 Master's Level Graduate Research Conference

Session I - Session II - Session III - Session IV

Using Site-directed Mutagenesis to Identify the Most Immunogenic Regions of Protein Vaccine Candidate P6

Nontypable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) are gram-negative bacteria known to cause otitis media (ear infections), pneumonia, bronchitis, sinusitis and other invasive diseases. For over 25 years, the P6 protein has been a leading candidate for a protein vaccine against NTHi. The overall goal of our work is to identify the most immunogenic part of P6, since using that small fragment of P6 in a vaccine would be more cost effective than using the whole protein. We have used site-directed mutagenesis, recombinant protein expression, ELISA, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to identify the residues on P6 which interact with monoclonal antibodies, since these residues are likely to be immunogenic.