Jenna Guthmiller, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
“Mapping preexisting mucosal B cell specificities engaged by potential universal influenza vaccines.”
Universal influenza vaccines have the potential to provide broad protection against circulating and emerging influenza viruses. However, the pre-existing B cell repertoires that can be stimulated by these vaccines at the site of infection remain uncharted.
Dr. Guthmiller’s successful proposal will map the preexisting human B cell repertoire within the draining lymph nodes of the upper and lower respiratory tract that bind and respond to next-generation influenza vaccines. This study will provide a framework of B cell specificities in the respiratory tract to improve mucosal vaccine design.
About Jenna Guthmiller:
Dr. Jenna Guthmiller studied Biology, Biotechnology, and Microbiology at South Dakota State University and completed her Ph.D. in Immunology and Microbiology in 2017 from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.
After completing her postdoctoral training at the University of Chicago, she joined the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in 2022.
Dr. Guthmiller's research focuses on understanding how humoral immunity against rapidly evolving pathogens develops and can be targeted by next generation vaccines.
Her interests in infectious diseases and humoral immunity stem from her childhood growing up on a dairy farm, where she learned the importance of vaccinations and passive immunity.
These childhood experiences drive the research within her own research laboratory, where they study the B cell repertoire against influenza viruses within the respiratory tract to inform mucosal vaccine design that can prevent the next influenza pandemic.