BME PhD Preliminary Exam Announcement for Sushma Gude (S. Harbin and H. HogenEsch, co-advisors)

Title: Integrated Development of an Oligomeric Collagen-Based Vaccine Depot and Mechanistic Modeling of Immune Response Dynamics

Everyone is invited to attend the public presentation beginning at 2:00 PM.

Date: December 4^th, 2025

Time: 2:00 PM

Location: MJIS 2001 and Zoom - https://purdue-edu.zoom.us/j/96686509696

Thesis Committee:

Advisors: Dr. Sherry Harbin, Dr. Harm HogenEsch

Committee members: Dr. Elsje Pienaar, Dr. Andrew Otte

Abstract:

Vaccines are a cornerstone of public and animal health but are limited by traditional intramuscular bolus injections, where antigens and adjuvants rapidly disperse from the injection site. This shortens antigen exposure to antigen-presenting cells, limits the duration of immune activation, and often necessitates multiple doses to achieve durable protection. Vaccine formulation development is further complicated by material-induced inflammation, batch-to-batch variability, antigen instability during fabrication, and reliance on iterative, resource-intensive animal testing. These limitations highlight the need for biocompatible vaccine delivery platforms that prolong antigen retention, improve the magnitude and longevity of immune responses without compromising safety or increasing adverse effects, and streamline formulation design while reducing reliance on in-vivo experiments. To address this need, we are integrating the evaluation of an established preclinical rodent model with an ordinary differential equation (ODE)-based computational model. Our preliminary work evaluated an in-situ self-assembling type I oligomeric collagen (Oligomer) material as a vaccine depot to localize Ovalbumin (OVA) and CpG, and assessed its effects on antigen retention, local tissue response, and systemic inflammation. We are developing a mechanistic ODE-based computational framework to quantify and predict vaccine-induced antigen availability and immune response dynamics to evaluate vaccine design parameters. We will integrate predictive modeling with in-vivo validation by using the computational model to predict antibody responses and assessing antibody responses and infertility outcomes in vivo following an Oligomer depot-based, single-dose contraceptive vaccine. Together, this work aims to inform vaccine design and advance more durable, safe, and efficient vaccine delivery platforms.