John Misasi, MD

Assistant Professor, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Biography

Dr. John Misasi, M.D., currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Virology, Immunology, and Microbiology at the Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine. Dr. Misasi earned his medical degree from SUNY-Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York, and completed his Pediatric Residency at New York University. He furthered his medical training as a Fellow in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Boston Children’s Hospital, where he subsequently held the position of Instructor in Pediatrics at both Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. During his fellowship and tenure as an Instructor, Dr. Misasi conducted research in the lab of Dr. James Cunningham at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, focusing on host factors for filovirus entry.

Later, Dr. Misasi joined the lab of Dr. Nancy Sullivan at the NIH Vaccine Research Center (VRC) in Bethesda, Maryland, initially serving as a Staff Clinician and Assistant Research Clinician. In this capacity, Dr. Misasi led a group dedicated to identifying antibodies and elucidating their structural and functional mechanisms of action. His work contributed to the understanding of antibodies that confer protection against lethal Ebola virus infection and played a role in the advanced development of mAb114 (ansuvimab), one of the two FDA-approved therapies for Ebola virus disease. Subsequently, he assumed the position of Chief of the VRC Yeast Engineering Technology and Immunobiology Core, where his team focused on antibody discovery, protein engineering, and investigating how antibodies bind to and neutralize virus infections, as well as mechanisms of viral immune evasion. Dr. Misasi’s research encompassed viruses such as Ebola, Lassa, HIV, RSV, SARS-CoV-2, and MPOX. He holds inventorship on multiple antibody patents and patent applications covering their use as monospecific and multispecific antibodies for prophylactic or therapeutic purposes.

In late 2023, Dr. Misasi joined the faculty of Boston University at the National Emerging Infectious Disease Laboratory. The lab employs virology, immunology, and structural biology tools to elucidate the mechanisms of antibody action and study virus-host immune system interactions that contribute to human disease. Dr. Misasi’s lab specifically focuses on understanding the relationship between the quality of antibodies produced, disease severity, and long-term immunity. His research aims to identify critical vulnerabilities in the life cycle of high-containment pathogens, determine therapeutic targets, and provide insights for structure-based vaccine design.

Publications

  • Published 10/9/2024

    Misasi J, Wei RR, Wang L, Pegu A, Wei CJ, Oloniniyi OK, Zhou T, Moliva JI, Zhao B, Choe M, Yang ES, Zhang Y, Boruszczak M, Chen M, Leung K, Li J, Yang ZY, Andersen H, Carlton K, Godbole S, Harris DR, Henry AR, Ivleva VB, Lei QP, Liu C, Longobardi L, Merriam JS, Nase D, Olia AS, Pessaint L, Porto M, Shi W, Wallace SM, Wolff JJ, Douek DC, Suthar MS, Gall JG, Koup RA, Kwong PD, Mascola JR, Nabel GJ, Sullivan NJ. A multispecific antibody against SARS-CoV-2 prevents immune escape in vitro and confers prophylactic protection in vivo. Sci Transl Med. 2024 Oct 09; 16(768):eado9026. PMID: 39383243.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 10/14/2023

    Kasumba DM, Misasi J, Mulangu S, Mbala-Kingebeni P. Exploring host-virus interaction to improve immunotherapy against Ebola virus. Trends Pharmacol Sci. 2023 Dec; 44(12):857-861. PMID: 37845170.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 12/14/2022

    Lima NS, Musayev M, Johnston TS, Wagner DA, Henry AR, Wang L, Yang ES, Zhang Y, Birungi K, Black WP, O'Dell S, Schmidt SD, Moon D, Lorang CG, Zhao B, Chen M, Boswell KL, Roberts-Torres J, Davis RL, Peyton L, Narpala SR, O'Connell S, Serebryannyy L, Wang J, Schrager A, Talana CA, Shimberg G, Leung K, Shi W, Khashab R, Biber A, Zilberman T, Rhein J, Vetter S, Ahmed A, Novik L, Widge A, Gordon I, Guech M, Teng IT, Phung E, Ruckwardt TJ, Pegu A, Misasi J, Doria-Rose NA, Gaudinski M, Koup RA, Kwong PD, McDermott AB, Amit S, Schacker TW, Levy I, Mascola JR, Sullivan NJ, Schramm CA, Douek DC. Primary exposure to SARS-CoV-2 variants elicits convergent epitope specificities, immunoglobulin V gene usage and public B cell clones. Nat Commun. 2022 Dec 14; 13(1):7733. PMID: 36517467.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 11/21/2022

    Misasi J, Wei RR, Wang L, Pegu A, Wei CJ, Oloniniyi OK, Zhou T, Moliva JI, Zhao B, Choe M, Yang ES, Zhang Y, Boruszczak M, Chen M, Leung K, Li J, Yang ZY, Andersen H, Carlton K, Godbole S, Harris DR, Henry AR, Ivleva VB, Lei P, Liu C, Longobardi L, Merriam JS, Nase D, Olia AS, Pessaint L, Porto M, Shi W, Wolff JJ, Douek DC, Suthar MS, Gall J, Koup RA, Kwong PD, Mascola JR, Nabel GJ, Sullivan NJ. A multispecific antibody prevents immune escape and confers pan-SARS-CoV-2 neutralization. bioRxiv. 2022 Nov 21. PMID: 35982683.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 6/30/2022

    Lima NS, Musayev M, Johnston TS, Wagner DA, Henry AR, Wang L, Yang ES, Zhang Y, Birungi K, Black WP, O'Dell S, Schmidt SD, Moon D, Lorang CG, Zhao B, Chen M, Boswell KL, Roberts-Torres J, Davis RL, Peyton L, Narpala SR, O'Connell S, Wang J, Schrager A, Talana CA, Leung K, Shi W, Khashab R, Biber A, Zilberman T, Rhein J, Vetter S, Ahmed A, Novik L, Widge A, Gordon I, Guech M, Teng IT, Phung E, Ruckwardt TJ, Pegu A, Misasi J, Doria-Rose NA, Gaudinski M, Koup RA, Kwong PD, McDermott AB, Amit S, Schacker TW, Levy I, Mascola JR, Sullivan NJ, Schramm CA, Douek DC. Primary exposure to SARS-CoV-2 variants elicits convergent epitope specificities, immunoglobulin V gene usage and public B cell clones. bioRxiv. 2022 Jun 30. PMID: 35378757.

    Read at: PubMed

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Other Positions

  • Adjunct Clinical Instructor, Pediatrics
    Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Websites

Education

  • State University of New York Upstate Medical University, MD
  • Boston University, BS

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