Sean McBurney Email: spm10@pitt.edu Lab: Ross Lab My research is focused on the development of an HIV-1 vaccine using virus-like particles, VLP's containing different HIV envelope glycoproteins. The large diversity of HIV-1 isolates circulating in the population requires a vaccine that can confer protection to a number of different isolates. Previous vaccine attempts have been able to illicit immunity against homologous virus but not heterologous virus, highlighting the need for a vaccine that addresses the issue of viral diversity. I am currently testing polyvalent Env VLP vaccines as well as singular VLPs containing consensus envelope genes from HIV-1 group M, Clade B, and Clade C. These vaccines will be evaluated by their ability to illicit an immune response to a range of HIV-1 isolates of different clades and their ability to block viral replication in an in vivo challenge system.