Inna Ovsyannikova, PhD
email: ovsyannikova.inna@mayo.edu
phone: 507-284-0856
Title(s)
Director of Laboratory Studies, Vaccine Research Group
Professor of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine
Mayo Clinic
Office
Mayo Clinic Gu 6-11A Guggenheim Building 200 First Street SW Rochester, MN 55905-0001
Information
Education
M.S. Khetagurov North Ossetian State University, Vladikavkaz, Russia
Ph.D. Mechnikov Research Institute for Vaccines and Sera, Moscow, Russia
Research interest:
Dr. Inna Ovsyannikova is the Director of Laboratory-based Studies for Mayo Clinic Vaccine Research Group and a Professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic. Dr. Ovsyannikova brings a comprehensive, systems-level understanding of how sex, age, and race affect innate and adaptive immunity, particularly regarding influenza, measles, mumps, rubella, and smallpox vaccine response. She is a leading researcher in the field of age-related changes and defects in the regulation and function of immune responses to the influenza vaccine virus in elderly persons.
She has published over 240 scientific manuscripts and 17 books/book chapters and has participated in more than 180 scientific exhibits and presentations at national and international societies. Dr. Ovsyannikova is the Associate Editor of Vaccine X and also holds current membership in the American Association of Immunologists and the American Society for Microbiology. She has served on many National Institutes of Health (NIH) study sections and international review panels. Dr. Ovsyannikova received her Ph.D. degree from the llya Mechnikov Research Institute for Vaccines and Sera in Moscow, Russia, and completed her postdoctoral training at the University of Virginia and has two fellowships in Allergy/Immunology and Clinical Pharmacology/Vaccinology at Mayo Clinic.
Dr. Ovsyannikova’s research areas of interest also include: 1) studies of the genetics of innate and adaptive immune responses to viral and bacterial vaccines, including influenza, measles, mumps, rubella, vaccinia, and anthrax; 2) areas of vaccine-preventable infectious diseases, particularly the application of mass spectrometry/bioinformatics used to develop peptide-based vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, influenza, smallpox, measles, Zika, and agents of bioterrorism; 3) gene polymorphisms, immunosenescence markers and predictors of vaccine immune response, including adverse events; 4) viral antigen processing and HLA presentation; and 5) systems biology high-dimensional vaccine studies utilizing platforms such as gene expression microarrays, DNA methylation arrays and next generation sequencing (mRNA-Seq, miRNA-Seq, and single-cell mRNA-Seq).
Dr. Ovsyannikova’s current research is focused on the immune responses to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the development of a COVID-19 peptide-based vaccine.
Focus areas
- Immunogenetic mechanisms underlying the immune response variations to pathogens, including measles, mumps, rubella, influenza, vaccinia and anthrax
- Vaccine nonresponse at various levels of host-pathogen interaction, such as gene polymorphisms (genome-wide association studies and candidate immune response genes, including HLA genes) and immune response levels (innate, humoral and cellular)
- Antigen processing and presentation and the application of mass spectrometry for developing peptide-based vaccines for measles, smallpox, influenza and agents of bioterrorism
- High-dimensional studies utilizing platforms such as gene expression microarrays, DNA methylation arrays and next-generation sequencing (mRNA sequencing)
Significance to patient care
The goal of these studies is to use vaccinomics to support future vaccine development. This research provides novel scientific approaches and solutions to vaccine nonresponse, develops a basis for new vaccines designed to overcome genetic restrictions, and gives insights into the functional mechanisms of immunity induced by vaccines.