NIH Record - National Institutes of Health

Crowe To Deliver 2023 Chanock Lecture

Dr. James Earl Crowe, Jr.
Dr. James Earl Crowe, Jr.

Human monoclonal antibodies are powerful tools both for defining protective antigens for vaccine development, as well as serving as therapeutics for prevention or treatment of infectious pathogens. A world-renowned immunologist and pioneer in this field, Dr. James Earl Crowe, Jr., will deliver this year’s NIAID Robert M. Chanock Memorial Lecture.  

His talk, “Human Monoclonal Antibodies for Emerging Infections,” will take place on Tuesday, May 9, at 9 a.m. in the Bldg. 50 first floor conference room. The in-person lecture will be by invitation only. Other interested members of the NIH community are welcome to join remotely at https://nih.zoomgov.com/j/1619775377.

Crowe, with over three decades of experience in viral immunology research, serves as director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Center and is the Ann Scott Carell professor of pediatrics, pathology, microbiology and immunology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. 

His laboratory develops innovative technologies for the isolation and study of human monoclonal antibodies. Using a broad array of techniques such as molecular and cellular biology and state-of-the-art imaging and flow cytometry, his group has produced novel monoclonal antibodies to a wide variety of human pathogens, including emerging infections such as Covid-19. 

In his lecture, Crowe will talk about advances in human monoclonal antibody development that may enable new approaches to pandemic readiness. He will discuss using single B cell technology to identify antiviral human monoclonal antibodies, review structure-based strategies for determining the mechanism of action of the most potent antibodies, and review new strategies for the rational development of synergistic antibody combinations to increase their therapeutic efficacy. 

Crowe is an Institute for Scientific Information highly cited researcher, has received numerous investigator awards including the Golden Goose Award and the 2023 Research!America Building the Foundation Award and is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and National Academy of Inventors. 

As a postdoctoral fellow at NIH from 1990 to 1995, Crowe trained with Chanock, who served as chief of the NIAID Laboratory of Infectious Diseases for more than three decades. The memorial lecture series honors Chanock, who died in 2010.

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