Claire Otero’s Path to Congenital Cytomegalovirus Vaccine Efficacy

Claire Otero, Ph.D. is a Postdoctoral Associate in Pediatrics in the Permar Lab at Weill Cornell Medicine. She was awarded a 2023 Michelson Prize: Next Generation Grant for her proposal, “Viral Fc receptors as vaccine antigens for prevention of congenital CMV.”

Dr. Otero's work aims to overcome one of the key challenges in creating an effective vaccine for cytomegalovirus (CMV) by blocking this important immune evasion mechanism through vaccination to improve Fc-mediated immunity.

CMV is a common disease that can prove deadly for those with weakened immune systems, and this research can prove central to increasing protection against congenital CMV.