Britta Wahren

Dr. Wahren has been a pioneer for many areas of vaccinology, including her prime-boost clinical trials for both prevention and therapy of HIV/AIDS, and her therapeutic vaccine studies for cancer (targeting CEA) and her novel passive immunotherapy for HIV known as Dock-and-Lock therapy. She is a Professor at the Karonlinska Institutet and has devoted significant effort to mentoring and educating PhD and post-doctoral students throughout Europe via various European consortia such as EAVI, AVIP, and Europrise.

One of Dr. Wahren’s focuses was designing a genetic HIV vaccine for immunotherapy and prophylaxix, and targeting genes that HIV possesses and making small DNA constructs. The resulting vaccine has been used in human trials in four different countries in Europe and Africa, and appears to be one of the most effective vaccines to prime for immune responses against a variety of HIV strains as it stimulates both Humoral and Cell-mediated immunity. The vaccine concept is an unusual one as the vaccine is composed of viral genes and not the usual proteins. The individual produces the vaccine antigen, thus making the vaccine tailor-made for the immune responses of the vaccinated individual. Efforts are underway to design a similar tailor-made genetic vaccine against the common colorectal cancer cells.