John Misasi, MD
Assistant Professor, Virology, Immunology & Microbiology
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.
Education
- State University of New York Upstate Medical University, MD
- Boston University, BS
Publications
- Published on 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 on 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 on 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 on 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 - Published on 5/24/2022
Teng IT, Nazzari AF, Choe M, Liu T, Oliveira de Souza M, Petrova Y, Tsybovsky Y, Wang S, Zhang B, Artamonov M, Madan B, Huang A, Lopez Acevedo SN, Pan X, Ruckwardt TJ, DeKosky BJ, Mascola JR, Misasi J, Sullivan NJ, Zhou T, Kwong PD. Molecular probes of spike ectodomain and its subdomains for SARS-CoV-2 variants, Alpha through Omicron. PLoS One. 2022; 17(5):e0268767. PMID: 35609088.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 4/25/2022
Westendorf K, Žentelis S, Wang L, Foster D, Vaillancourt P, Wiggin M, Lovett E, van der Lee R, Hendle J, Pustilnik A, Sauder JM, Kraft L, Hwang Y, Siegel RW, Chen J, Heinz BA, Higgs RE, Kallewaard NL, Jepson K, Goya R, Smith MA, Collins DW, Pellacani D, Xiang P, de Puyraimond V, Ricicova M, Devorkin L, Pritchard C, O'Neill A, Dalal K, Panwar P, Dhupar H, Garces FA, Cohen CA, Dye JM, Huie KE, Badger CV, Kobasa D, Audet J, Freitas JJ, Hassanali S, Hughes I, Munoz L, Palma HC, Ramamurthy B, Cross RW, Geisbert TW, Menachery V, Lokugamage K, Borisevich V, Lanz I, Anderson L, Sipahimalani P, Corbett KS, Yang ES, Zhang Y, Shi W, Zhou T, Choe M, Misasi J, Kwong PD, Sullivan NJ, Graham BS, Fernandez TL, Hansen CL, Falconer E, Mascola JR, Jones BE, Barnhart BC. LY-CoV1404 (bebtelovimab) potently neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 variants. Cell Rep. 2022 May 17; 39(7):110812. PMID: 35568025.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 4/22/2022
Zhou T, Wang L, Misasi J, Pegu A, Zhang Y, Harris DR, Olia AS, Talana CA, Yang ES, Chen M, Choe M, Shi W, Teng IT, Creanga A, Jenkins C, Leung K, Liu T, Stancofski ED, Stephens T, Zhang B, Tsybovsky Y, Graham BS, Mascola JR, Sullivan NJ, Kwong PD. Structural basis for potent antibody neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 variants including B.1.1.529. Science. 2022 Apr 22; 376(6591):eabn8897. PMID: 35324257.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 3/24/2022
Westendorf K, Žentelis S, Wang L, Foster D, Vaillancourt P, Wiggin M, Lovett E, van der Lee R, Hendle J, Pustilnik A, Sauder JM, Kraft L, Hwang Y, Siegel RW, Chen J, Heinz BA, Higgs RE, Kallewaard NL, Jepson K, Goya R, Smith MA, Collins DW, Pellacani D, Xiang P, de Puyraimond V, Ricicova M, Devorkin L, Pritchard C, O'Neill A, Dalal K, Panwar P, Dhupar H, Garces FA, Cohen CA, Dye JM, Huie KE, Badger CV, Kobasa D, Audet J, Freitas JJ, Hassanali S, Hughes I, Munoz L, Palma HC, Ramamurthy B, Cross RW, Geisbert TW, Menacherry V, Lokugamage K, Borisevich V, Lanz I, Anderson L, Sipahimalani P, Corbett KS, Yang ES, Zhang Y, Shi W, Zhou T, Choe M, Misasi J, Kwong PD, Sullivan NJ, Graham BS, Fernandez TL, Hansen CL, Falconer E, Mascola JR, Jones BE, Barnhart BC. LY-CoV1404 (bebtelovimab) potently neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 variants. bioRxiv. 2022 Mar 24. PMID: 33972947.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 1/26/2022
Pajon R, Doria-Rose NA, Shen X, Schmidt SD, O'Dell S, McDanal C, Feng W, Tong J, Eaton A, Maglinao M, Tang H, Manning KE, Edara VV, Lai L, Ellis M, Moore KM, Floyd K, Foster SL, Posavad CM, Atmar RL, Lyke KE, Zhou T, Wang L, Zhang Y, Gaudinski MR, Black WP, Gordon I, Guech M, Ledgerwood JE, Misasi JN, Widge A, Sullivan NJ, Roberts PC, Beigel JH, Korber B, Baden LR, El Sahly H, Chalkias S, Zhou H, Feng J, Girard B, Das R, Aunins A, Edwards DK, Suthar MS, Mascola JR, Montefiori DC. SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant Neutralization after mRNA-1273 Booster Vaccination. N Engl J Med. 2022 Mar 17; 386(11):1088-1091. PMID: 35081298.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 1/17/2022
Richardson SI, Manamela NP, Motsoeneng BM, Kaldine H, Ayres F, Makhado Z, Mennen M, Skelem S, Williams N, Sullivan NJ, Misasi J, Gray GG, Bekker LG, Ueckermann V, Rossouw TM, Boswell MT, Ntusi NAB, Burgers WA, Moore PL. SARS-CoV-2 Beta and Delta variants trigger Fc effector function with increased cross-reactivity. Cell Rep Med. 2022 Feb 15; 3(2):100510. PMID: 35233544.
Read at: PubMed
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