Megan Rodgers, Postbac Fellow in the INRO Program, Molecular Immunoengineering Section, Vaccine Research Center
This summer, the NIAID Office of Research Training and Development (ORTD) hosted its annual Summer Seminar Series aimed at exposing current postbaccalaureate fellows (postbacs) to research occurring within the Institute. The final seminar in this series featured Ted Pierson, Ph.D., who serves as the director of the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) and the chief of the Arbovirus Immunity Section (AIS). In his seminar, Dr. Pierson shared his unique journey through academia and research before discussing a current objective of the VRC and how it helped shape the COVID-19 response.
Dr. Pierson began the seminar by highlighting how every pathway to becoming a scientist is unique and used his own career progression as an example. His academic career began as an undergraduate at Eckerd College, majoring in marine science. Then, during his graduate studies, he shifted his focus to immunology, studying HIV latency and persistence, which culminated in a Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In his postdoctoral studies, he became fascinated with the complex transmission cycles of flaviviruses and once again shifted his focus to the field of arboviruses. In 2005, NIAID recruited him to initiate an independent research program as tenure-track faculty in the Laboratory of Viral Diseases (LVD). Over the next 18 years, he progressed through the roles of senior investigator and LVD Laboratory Chief to ultimately be appointed as the Director of the VRC while maintaining his direct leadership of AIS. Dr. Pierson emphasized that his career trajectory demonstrates how taking risks and following your interests lead to exciting opportunities. He reminded the postbacs that in research you can learn from failures and mistakes, and leveraging the experience of mentors and colleagues and the unique opportunities of NIH can really advance your development as early career scientists.
Dr. Pierson transitioned the rest of the seminar to discuss prototype pathogen research at the VRC. He defined the concept of prototype pathogen research as identifying and characterizing the biology, structure, and immune response to known pathogens in the hopes of applying this knowledge to related pathogens. This strategy was successfully used within the VRC during the COVID-19 response. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, in work led by Dr. Barney Graham and colleagues, the VRC was developing respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines informed by structural biology techniques. During the onset of the pandemic, antigen stabilization used in the development of the RSV vaccine and studies of related coronaviruses like SARS-1 and MERS were directly applied to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This led to the development of antigen designs that serve as the current platform for approved COVID-19 vaccines. Under Dr. Pierson’s leadership, AIS is using similar strategies to further characterize the immune response to the Zika virus and test vaccine antigens to identify a general solution for other flaviviruses.
Overall, Dr. Pierson gave an exciting and insightful seminar, providing guidance and direction to current postbacs. He encouraged persistence in the face of change and setbacks and urged postbacs to leverage the incredible resources available at NIH, including mentors and colleagues. He shared how a current objective of the VRC improved pandemic preparedness and how we can take these lessons forward into new directions. The seminar highlighted the critical work being accomplished within NIH and the endless possibilities here at NIAID.
Learn more about postbaccalaureate training opportunities at NIAID.