Penaloza-MacMaster Laboratory
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Viral pandemics remain an enduring threat to humanity. The Penaloza-MacMaster Laboratory is dedicated to developing innovative strategies to prevent or treat viral infections, integrating fundamental immunology with translational applications. Dr. Penaloza-MacMaster began his scientific journey in Dr. Rafi Ahmed’s laboratory at Emory University, where he studied immune regulation during acute and chronic viral infections, focusing on T regulatory cells (Penaloza-MacMaster, JEM, 2014). He then completed postdoctoral training with Dr. Dan Barouch at BIDMC/Harvard Medical School, where he demonstrated that CD4 T cell-based vaccines could induce immunopathology during chronic viral infection (Penaloza-MacMaster, Science, 2015).
In 2016, he started his own laboratory at Northwestern University, leading multiple studies aimed at enhancing immunotherapies and vaccines. His laboratory was the first to show that lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a component of the microbiome, enhances PD-1 blockade therapy for chronic infection (Wang, PLOS Pathogens, 2019). His group also demonstrated that transient IFN-I blockade improves the efficacy of multiple viral vaccines, including those against yellow fever virus, HIV-1, and coronaviruses (Palacio, 2020).
During the COVID-19 pandemic, his research expanded to coronavirus immunology. His group showed that incorporating both spike and nucleocapsid antigens provides broader protection than spike-only vaccines (Dangi, Cell Reports, 2021), and identified nucleocapsid as a promising target for monoclonal antibody therapy (Dangi, JCI, 2022). His lab also investigated vaccine priming strategies, demonstrating that a low-dose priming approach enhances adaptive immune responses compared to standard-dose vaccination (Sanchez, Science Immunology, 2021), with potential applications for adenovirus-based vaccines used worldwide. Moreover, his laboratory showed that a SARS-CoV-1 vaccine developed back in 2004 provided cross-protection against SARS-CoV-2 (Dangi, JCI, 2021), reinforcing the feasibility of developing pan-coronavirus vaccines targeting whole coronavirus subgenera.
Moving forward, his research will continue to focus on optimizing viral vaccines, with a particular emphasis on developing a universal coronavirus vaccine. Additionally, the laboratory is exploring strategies to enhance vaccine responses, particularly by investigating how pre-existing antibodies influence immunity during booster vaccinations. Building on two recent studies (Dangi, Cell Reports, 2023; and Sanchez, JCI, 2024), the laboratory aims to determine whether transient modulation of antibody effector functions and costimulation can improve the efficacy of viral vaccines, including those against coronaviruses and HIV-1. The laboratory has also extended its expertise in viral immunology toward the development of novel cancer therapies, focusing on the immunostimulatory effects of arenaviruses (Chung, JCI, 2024).
In addition to his research, Dr. Penaloza-MacMaster is deeply dedicated to teaching. Since 2017, he has taught several graduate-level courses to Ph.D. students and served on multiple thesis committees. He is an Associate Editor at JCI and a Standing Member of the Immune Host Defense (IHD) study section at the NIH. He is also committed to advocating for science and evidence-based policy. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he served as a Task Force Advisor to the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) Director on vaccines and worked diligently to combat misinformation through national and international news outlets. He also served on the Education Committee of the American Association of Immunologists (AAI) and has been an AAI Capitol Hill Advocate, meeting with members of Congress to support increased NIH funding for biomedical research. In 2025, Dr. Penaloza-MacMaster relocated his laboratory to the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research (CVVR) at BIDMC.
