BIO

Dr. Olivia Pimentel has a Ph.D. in Biophysics from Boston University School of Medicine, and a M.S. and B.S. in Biology from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. At Los Alamos National Laboratory, Olivia is a postdoctoral research associate in the laboratory of Dr. Jessica Kubicek-Sutherland and is investigating bacterial lipid nanodiscs as a novel platform for vaccine and therapeutic development. Olivia’s expertise is in spectroscopic and biophysical techniques, as well as cryo-electron microscopy. Outside of research, Olivia spends her time doing STEM outreach, soaking up the sun, and marveling at invertebrates.

ABSTRACT

The world’s next emerging biothreat is around the corner, and we need to prepared. What we have learned from past and recent pandemics is that our protection is only as good as our vaccines. Proteins are the traditional targets for vaccines, but evolve rapidly, allowing for escape from immune responses. The idea behind this project is to create a vaccine to the part of the pathogen that rarely evolves: the lipids. Nanodiscs, which are a complex of lipid and protein, may provide a solution to presenting the immune system to lipids in a stable yet accessible manner. We have created nanodiscs from the bacterial pathogen Yersinia pestis, the causative agent of the Plague or the Black Death. This novel vaccine platform will allow for quick vaccine product formulation for other bacterial threats, and possibly eliminate the need for future vaccines and boosters. So far, Y. pestis nanodisc assembly is repeatable, physically stable, and allows for the identification of previously unsolubilized and uncharacterized lipids. We are taking the macro problem of pandemic preparedness and making it nano!