Departmental Affiliations
Center & Institute Affiliations
Anna Durbin, MD, studies experimental vaccines for SARS-CoV-2, dengue, West Nile, Zika, malaria, and more in human clinical trials and in controlled human infection studies.
Contact Info
Research Interests
International Health, Dengue, Malaria, Vaccines
Experiences & Accomplishments
My research involves the evaluation of experimental vaccines in human clinical trials. At the Center for Immunization Research, we have conducted numerous clinical trials of many different pediatric and adult candidate vaccines. These trials have included vaccines against HIV, hepatitis C, human papilloma virus, influenza, rotavirus, respiratory syncytial virus, dengue virus, and malaria. I am primarily interested in vaccines against dengue viruses and malaria have a very active dengue and malaria vaccine programs here at the Center for Immunization Research. We haven conducted numerous Phase I live attenuated dengue vaccine trials with the ultimate goal of identifying suitable monovalent vaccine viruses for inclusion in a tetravalent dengue vaccine. In addition, we have conducted many Phase I malaria vaccine trials at our clinical site in Washington DC. An important interest of mine is studying the immunopathogenesis of dengue infection and disease. We hope to better understand the viral, host, and immunologic factors causing severe dengue illness by extensively characterizing the cellular and humoral responses of volunteers to live attenuated dengue virus vaccines. In addition to our clinical studies, my laboratory is also developing an animal model of dengue using rhesus macaques.
Honors & Awards
2005: National Institutes of Health Merit Award for outstanding basic and translational research in developing vaccines for the prevention of respiratory virus and flavivirus diseases
2010: NIH Director's Award
Select Publications
Durbin AP, Whitehead SS. Dengue vaccine candidates in development. Curr Top Microbiol Immunol 2010;338:129-43
Ellis RD, Martin LB, Shaffer D, Long CA, Kazutoyo M, Fay MP, Narum DL, Zhu D, Mullen GE, Mahanty S, Miller LH, Durbin AP. Phase 1 trial of the Plasmodium falciparum blood stage vaccine MSP142-C1/alhydrogel with and without CPG 7909 in malaria naïve adults. PLos One 2010;5(1):e8787
Wright PF, Durbin AP, Whitehead SS, Ikizler MR, Henderson S, Blaney JE, Thumar B, Ankrah S, Rock MT, McKinney BA, Murphy BR, and Schmidt AC. Phase 1 trial of the dengue virus type 4 vaccine candidate rDEN4D30-4995 in healhty adult volunteers. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2009; 81(5):834-41.
Blaney JE, Jr., Durbin AP, Murphy BR and Whitehead SS. Targeted mutagenesis as a rational approach to dengue virus vaccine development. Curr Top Microbiol Immunol 2010;338:145-58
Durbin AP, Whitehead SS. Dengue vaccine candidates in development. Curr Top Microbiol Immunol 2010;338:129-43