ASU SoLS Faculty: Kathryn F. Sykes

After a postdoc in yeast genetics and molecular biology Dr. Sykes began developing genetic (DNA) immunization for vaccine candidate discovery in animals and also as a clinical immunization protocol. She participated in the launch of a biotechnology company in Texas in 2001, which was based on technologies she co-invented. Combined with her past experience as a faculty member at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, she brings a familiarity with goal-oriented, product-driven science to her program within the Center for Innovations in Medicine at ASU’s Biodesign Institute.

Genomes to Vaccines

Our Genomes to Vaccines Program has two related objectives. The first is to develop a uniform system to mobilize the genomic sequences of pathogens into modern, effective component vaccines. We take advantage of a number of our past innovations including the gene gun, genetic immunization, expression library immunization and linear expression elements. We want to optimize this system to reduce as many pathogen genomes as possible into the genes that encode the best vaccines. Our goal is to do enough of these pathogens so that we will discover the rules to predict the best vaccine for any pathogen.

The second objective is to develop genetic immunization as a widely used method to deliver vaccines. While many researchers have successfully used gene vaccines in model animals, difficulties have arisen in their application to primates and humans. Our goal is to solve these technical delivery problems and thereby permit this technology to more generally solve the problems associated with vaccine-composition categories such as whole pathogen or protein subunits.

Selected Publications | CV (PDF)

Qu, B.-X., Sykes, K., Hoang Dinh, H. and Johnston, S. A. Temporal control of immunization by drug-inducible transgene expression, Submitted.

Li, D., Clayton, D., Vaglenov, A., Wang, C., Kim, T., D. Gao, Borovkov, A., Sykes, K., and Kaltenboeck, B. Development of a respiratory model of Chlamydia pneumoniae and a genomic screen for subunit vaccine candidates, Vaccine, 24:2917-2927.

Stemke-Hale, K., Kaltenboeck, B., DeGraves, F. J., Sykes, K. F., Huang, J., Bu, C.-H., and Johnston, S. A. 2005. Screening the whole genome of a pathogen in vivo for individual protective antigens. Vaccine, 23: 3016-3025.

McGuire, M. J., Sykes, K. F., Samli, K. N., Timares, L., Barry, M. A., Stemke-Hale, K., Tagliaferri, F., Logan, M., Jansa, K., Takashima, A., et al. 2004. A Library-Selected, Langerhans Cell-Targeting Peptide Enhances an Immune Response. DNA and Cell Biology 23: 742-752.

Oyama, T., Sykes, K.F., Samli, K.N., Minna, J.D., Johnston, S.A. & Brown, K.C. 2003. Isolation of lung tumor specific peptides from a random peptide library: generation of diagnostic and cell-targeting reagents. Cancer Letters, 202(2), 219-230.

Locher, C. P., Sykes, K. F., Blackbourn, D. J., Johnston, S. A. 2002. Immune responses in baboons vaccinated with HIV-2 genetic expression libraries. Journal of Medical Primatology 31: 323-9.

DeGraves, F. J., K. Stemke-Hale, J. Huang, S. A. Johnston, K. F. Sykes, T. Schlapp, H.-R. Hehnen, and B. Kaltenboeck. 2002. Vaccine identified by in vivo genomic screening enhances fertility in cattle during environmental challenge with Chlamydia, pp. 265-268. In Chlamydial Infections: Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on Human Chlamydial Infection. Antalya, Turkey, June 2002. J. Schachter, et al. (Ed.), ISBN 0-9664383-1-0.

Sykes, K., Squires, R., Lewis, M. and Johnston, S. A. 2002. Evaluation of SIV expression library vaccines in a macaque challenge. Vaccine 20:2382-95.

Rombel, I., Sykes, K, Rayner, S. and Johnston, S. A. 2002. An open reading frame vector for high throughput gene identification. Gene 282:33-41.

Johnston, S. A., Qu, Bao-Xi, McGuire, M. Stemke-Hale, K., and Sykes, K. Applications and future challenges for genetic vaccines. In: Development and Clinical Progress of DNA Vaccines Developments in Biologicals. Eds: Brown F., Cichutek, K., and Robertson, J., Basel, Karger, 2000, vol 104, pp. 3-8.

Sykes, K. and Johnston, S. A. 1999. Genetic live vaccines mimic the antigenicity but not pathogenicity of live viruses. DNA and Cell Biology. 18:521-532.

Sykes, K. and Johnston, S. A. 1999. Linear Expression Elements: a rapid, in vivo, method to screen for gene functions. Nature Biotechnology. 17: 355-359.

Johnston, S. A., Sykes, K., and Barry, M. A. 1997. DNA-based Vaccines: extending the technology, In: New Generation Vaccines. Ed: Levine, Woodrow, Kaper, and Cobon. Marcel Deker Publishers, New York. Ch 23, pp. 279-28