Michael Pichichero, MD
Director, Rochester General Hospital Research Institute

Phone: (585) 922-2411
Email: [email protected]

Dr. Michael E. Pichichero is a physician-scientist, trained and board-certified in pediatrics, pediatric infectious diseases, and adult and pediatric allergy/immunology. His career has been as a clinical and translational vaccine immunobiologist. He brings the experience of a continuously funded investigator by NIH since 1981. He has received over $70 million in federal, foundation, association and industry grants and he has >300 peer-reviewed publications; 150 in the field of vaccines and vaccine immunobiology pertaining to pertussis, diphtheria, tetanus, rotavirus, influenza, tularemia, botulism, and H. influenzae type b, pneumococcal and meningococcal conjugate and candidate nontypeable H. influenzae and S. pneumoniae protein candidate vaccines, and 65 in the field of acute otitis media (AOM). Dr. Pichichero was on the discovery team at the University of Rochester that invented the H. influenzae type b and pneumococcal conjugate vaccines. His role was candidate antigen identification, evaluation of mucosal and serum antibody responses and clinical trial supervision for prototype conjugate vaccines. In 2005, Dr. Pichichero returned to the bench, recruited 3 PhD scientists and a post-doc to launch a focused research team dedicated to vaccine immunobiology in children. He left the Univ. of Rochester in 2009 to accept a new position across town as Director of the Rochester General Hospital Research Institute (RGHRI).

Dr. Pichichero’s lab is focused on prospective, longitudinal clinical and translational studies of acute otitis media (AOM) (R01 DC 08671). His group seeks to define the adaptive and innate immune response deficits among otitis prone (OP) children to infections caused by nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) and Streptococcus pneumoniae (Spn). They seek to understand the immunity deficits among OP children in the context of overcoming the immune modulating effects of upper respiratory viral infections. To better understand NTHi and Spn pathogenesis and assist in vaccine development they are: (1) identifying specific adaptive immune deficits in OP children; (2) determining independent contributions of mucosal immunity in OP children; (3) understanding the role of innate responses to co-infection of respiratory bacteria and viruses; and (4) defining the role of differences in the nasopharyngeal (NP) inflammatory response in shaping the mucosal microenvironment to allow for NTHi/Spn colonization and then infection.

In 2011, Dr. Pichichero’s group discovered the most common immunodeficiency of children (occurring in about 5% of 6 to 24 month olds) they termed Prolonged Neonatal Immune Profile (PNIP). They found that PNIP children have even lower antibody and antigen-specific memory T-cell responses than normal young children to multiple vaccines. Their immune profile appears similar to neonates, leaving them even more susceptible to multiple vaccine-preventable infections. The differences in the immune responses of PNIP children and normal and other low vaccine responder young children may be attributable to multiple factors. The group plans to further characterize the immunologic differences of adaptive immune responses, interactions among immunity effector cells, and mechanisms that contribute to the more limited immune responses to vaccines in normal, low vaccine responders and PNIP young children. Their focus will be on CD4 T-cell, B cell and APC cell responses with respect to activation, function and long-term persistence (memory) after routine pediatric vaccinations, comparing normal, low vaccine responders and PNIP children. The ultimate goal is to understand the key characteristics of immunity in young children that might be augmented by new rational vaccine design and the addition of adjuvants to overcome the lack of response and need for multiple vaccine doses to establish protection from disease and lifelong immunity.

View Dr. Michael Pichichero's recent publications

Robert Zagursky (Zag), PhD
Manager

Phone: (585) 922-0379
[email protected]

Zag is a manager and scientist, trained in the fields of microbiology, immunology, vaccinology, protein structure and bioinformatics. He has 30 years of life science experience in the industry of which 15 years were in human vaccine discovery at Wyeth/Pfizer whereas a Research Fellow he took early retirement. Zag has a number of publications and patents. He currently also holds an appointment in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at URMC. His past research focused on the discovery of vaccine candidates to Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, Streptococcus pyogenes, Neisseria meningitidis as well as lead a team in the development of a novel HIV vaccine candidate. Zag was on the discovery team at Wyeth that developed the first Meningococcal Group B Vaccine approved in the USA, Trumenba. He currently supports the daily research operations of the scientists, reviews documents, organizes lab functions and oversees the development of a new clinical/research database.

Dr. Robert Zagursky's recent publications

Ravinder Kaur, PhD
Research Scientist II

Phone: (585) 922-2474
Email: [email protected]

Dr. Kaur is a Research Scientist I trained in the fields of microbiology & immunology. Her research focuses on pathogenesis and immunology involving the bacterial pathogens S. pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae. Dr. Kaur works with human samples to understand differential expression of virulence determinants by these respiratory pathogens when they colonize the nasopharynx and progress to acute otitis media in children. She seeks to identify whether vaccine candidate proteins of S. pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae would be targets for immune responses occurring at the site of colonization compared to the site of infection. The microbiome of the nasopharynx and innate and adaptive immune responses may modulate protein expression by these respiratory bacteria; differences may exist between humans prone to such infections compared to those who resist infection more effectively.

Dr. Ravinder Kaur's recent publications

Lei Xu

Dr. Lei Xu has had extensive experience in research fields of molecular and cellular biology, genetics, and cancer biology.  Her research focuses on pneumococcal diseases, which are among the most prevalent diseases caused by bacteria.  Although powerful vaccines are available and have been implemented at a broad scale, resistant strains frequently arise and as such new intervention approaches are needed.  Furthermore, vaccines are not efficient in protecting certain pneumococcal diseases such as otitis media.  To address these issues, Dr. Xu investigates the impact of microbiota on pneumococcal diseases and in particular on otitis media. Microbiota has been recently found as one of the key factors influencing human health, including inflammatory bowel diseases and diabetes.  Its potential function in otitis media has also been implicated but the mechanisms remain unclear and application toward treatment is not yet established.  Dr. Xu aims to identify bacteria profiles that prevent the development of the disease and support a healthier state of the individuals, which may ultimately lead to microbiota-based treatment and prevention options.

Naoko Fuji

Naoko Fuji was trained in the fields of virology and molecular epidemiology. She worked on respiratory viruses in pediatric severe respiratory illness. Her research interests are the interaction between bacterial and viral pathogens in hosts and their influence on the immune system. She is also interested in bacterial virulence changes in a manner that is specific to the infection site.