Donald R. Drake III, Ph.D.

Director of Immunological Research

Don joined VaxDesign in 2005 and has served as Director of Immunological Research since 2009. Don has had a long-standing interest in the immune system, particularly the interaction between viruses and elements of the adaptive immune system, since initiating his graduate studies at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. As a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Virginia, he was awarded funding from the Cancer Research Institute and received an Interdisciplinary Training Grant in Immunology from the National Institutes of Health to study CD8+ T cell immunity against influenza virus.  At VaxDesign, Don leads a team developing and optimizing the MIMIC® System to permit the evaluation of human adaptive immunity (cellular and humoral responses) against vaccine candidates, biologics, and other immunomodulators in a pre-clinical setting. He is an author on a variety of patents and peer-reviewed journal publications.