Human herpesvirus evasion of humoral immunity and implications for vaccine development Nature Reviews Microbiology, Published online: 13 March 2026; doi:10.1038/s41579-026-01295-xIn this Review, Otero et al. explore how human herpesviruses evade humoral immune responses and consider the resulting implications for developing effective vaccines and treatments for diseases caused by these common viral pathogens.

New online! Human herpesvirus evasion of humoral immunity and implications for vaccine development

Antibodies targeting HSV glycoprotein B require effector functions to protect neonatal mice | Journal of Virology Antibodies represent promising drugs for the prevention and treatment of viral infections, especially when efficacious vaccines are unavailable. Determining the dominant mechanisms of Ab-mediated prot...

The final portion of my PhD thesis is now live! Here we describe that both neutralziing and non neutralizing Abs targeting HSV gB require Fc effector functions to protect neonatal mice from infection. Thanks to all my coauthors, collaborators and thesis advisors! journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Prefusion-specific glycoprotein B human antibodies protect against neonatal HSV-2 infection www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02...

Structure-based design of soluble prefusion-stabilized herpes simplex virus type 2 glycoprotein B antigens www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.26.701809v1 #cryoEM

Eliminating interactions with the viral Fc receptor improves antibody-mediated protection against neonatal HSV infection in mice HSV-specific antibodies demonstrate improved activity in vitro and in vivo when the IgG Fc domain is rendered insensitive to the viral Fc receptor.

Excited to share a new publication from my PhD labs where we explore a method to improve antibody-mediated protection against herpes simplex virus infections: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

I'm honored to receive a MacArthur Fellowship. As always, I extend my sincerest thanks to all my wonderful mentors, colleagues, collaborators, admins, and trainees who make this work possible. #MacFellow

Excited to have contributed to Volume 12 of Annual Review of Virology! www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Antibodies targeting HSV glycoprotein B require effector functions to protect neonatal mice Glycoprotein B (gB) serves as the viral fusion protein for herpes simplex virus (HSV), mediating fusion between viral and host membranes resulting in infection. As such, gB represents a potentially cr...

Excited to share a portion of my PhD work describing the mechanisms of antibody-mediated protection against HSV infection. Here we show that a panel of 5 mAbs targeting gB all required Fc effector functions to be protective in a mouse model of neonatal HSV infection. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Nonstabilized SARS-CoV-2 spike mRNA vaccination induces broadly neutralizing antibodies in nonhuman primates Nonstabilized SARS-CoV-2 spike mRNA vaccination elicited distinct antibodies to either Omicron variants of concern or preemergent sarbecoviruses.

A paper from our pancoronavirus vaccine P01 grant group is now out in Science Translational Medicine.

Here we show that non-stabilized spike delivered as mRNA is sufficient to elicit broadly neutralizing antibodies in monkeys.

@alexschaefer.bsky.social

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Antibody-mediated restriction of M. tuberculosis is associated with reorganization of the tissue-level immune response to infection and depends on the collaboration of antibody Fab and Fc @cp-immunity.bsky.social Alter/Fortune
www.cell.com/immunity/ful...

A review I wrote for the upcoming issue of Annual Review of Virology is now live as a Review in Advance! tinyurl.com/ARV2025 Here we talk about the multifaceted role of maternal antibodies in protection against three important congenital viral infections. #virology

Successfully defended my thesis two weeks ago! Couldn’t have asked for better labs to do my PhD work in