Gary Nabel

Gary J. Nabel is an American virologist and immunologist. He is the president and chief executive officer of ModeX Therapeutics, based in Natick, Massachusetts. He was the founding director of the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a position he held from 1999 until an unspecified date.^[1]

Gary J. Nabel
Alma mater	Harvard University Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Scientific career
Fields	Virology, Immunology
Institutions	Sanofi National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Brigham and Women's Hospital Harvard Medical School University of Michigan

Education

Nabel completed his undergraduate studies at Harvard University in 1975, followed by an M.D. in 1980 and Ph.D. in 1982 from the same institution. His dissertation research was conducted in the laboratory of immunologist Harvey Cantor. He then worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of David Baltimore at the Whitehead Institute, studying the regulation of HIV gene expression by the transcription factor NF-κB.^[2][3] He completed his Internal Medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Career

Nabel joined the faculty of the University of Michigan in 1987, where he led a research laboratory on infectious diseases and cancer immunotherapy. He served as an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute until 1999,^[4] researching transcriptional regulation of cell and viral gene expression, and viral vectors in gene therapy.^[5] He also held the title of Sewell Professor of Internal Medicine and Biological Chemistry.

In 1999, Nabel joined the NIH in Washington, D.C. to help establish a vaccine research program. He served as the founding director of the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases within NIH and subsequently as a senior investigator with tenure. At NIH, he oversaw basic, clinical, and translational research on vaccine strategies, including efforts related to structure-based vaccine design. This work included laboratory research and clinical trials, such as in excess of 100 clinical studies conducted in the United States, Europe, and Africa, involving candidates for SARS, Chikungunya, universal influenza, and Ebola vaccines.

Nabel moved to Sanofi in 2012, serving as chief scientific officer and senior vice president. He oversaw the Breakthrough Lab, which developed tri-specific antibodies that are now in development for HIV.^[6] He also managed the Sanofi global R&D research portfolio.

Nabel co-founded ModeX Therapeutics in 2020.^[7] In May 2022, ModeX Therapeutics was acquired by OPKO Health.^[8]

Biomedical research

At the University of Michigan, Nabel's basic research investigated gene transfer,^[9] basic mechanisms of HIV gene regulation, and NF-κB transcriptional control.^[10][11]

As founding director of the NIH’s Vaccine Research Center, Nabel contributed to vaccine development efforts. Research utilizing molecular genetics and viral replication structure contributed to developing a vaccine candidate against Ebola using gene-based immunization, which demonstrated protection against infection in non-human primates.^[12][13] This work provided a conceptual basis for the VSV vaccine. The research also included the development of a Chikungunya virus vaccine effective in primates and contributions to the advancement of universal influenza vaccines. Utilizing a structure-based approach to vaccine design, research elucidated broadly protective human immune responses to HIV,^[14] leading to the discovery by him and his colleagues from the VRC of broadly neutralizing antibodies to the highly conserved CD4 binding site of HIV. An antibody platform, tri-specific antibodies, was developed, which showed anti-HIV activity in studies and advanced into human trials.

Nabel applied molecular immunology and molecular virology techniques to identify genes critical for Ebola virus replication and assembly. His research demonstrated that a gene-based prime–boost vaccination strategy stimulates both cellular and humoral immune responses. This work led to the development of a that was tested in non-human primates,^[15] and defined its immune mechanisms of protection, guiding its further development and trials in Africa. His team’s research also contributed to advancing novel SARS^[16] and pandemic influenza^[17][18] vaccine candidates into clinical trials, and to identifying potential vaccine candidates against encephalitis‑causing viruses and Epstein–Barr virus (EBV).

At NIH’s Vaccine Research Center, he also contributed to research on neutralizing antibodies against HIV, universal influenza,^[19] Ebola,^[20] Chikungunya,^[21] and Epstein-Barr virus.^[22] He led research on viral molecular biology, protein structure, and immunotherapy, which defined modes of immune escape and contributed to the discovery of broadly neutralizing antibodies to the highly conserved CD4 binding site of HIV that are now in human efficacy trials in Africa.^[23]

At Sanofi, Nabel's work included the development of an antibody platform capable of recognizing three targets in a single protein, tri-specific antibodies, now under evaluation for the treatment and prevention of AIDS and cancer.^[24][25]

Awards

Nabel's honors include the Amgen Scientific Achievement Award from the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology,^[26] The Health and Human Services Secretary’s Award for Distinguished Service, the Geoffrey Beene Foundation Builders of Science Award from Research America, and the James Tolbert Shipley Prize for Research at Harvard Medical School.^[26] He received an honorary degree from the University of London, as well as the U.S. Army Medical Department’s Order of Military Medical Merit. Nabel is an elected fellow of the Association of American Physicians, the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences, and the AAAS. Nabel was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 1992 and the National Academy of Medicine in 1998.

Nabel served as the Chair of the Board of Directors for the Keystone Symposia^[27] from 2017 to 2019. He was a Council Delegate to the AAAS, Medical Sciences Section from 1997 to 2002, and served as the editor for the Journal of Virology from 1995 to 2005.