Peter D Kwong

About

Peter D Kwong, PhD, is the Richard J. Stock Professor of Medical Sciences (Infectious Diseases) at Columbia University and a Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics. He received his PhD from Columbia University in 1995 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Wayne A. Hendrickson until 2000. He then founded and led the Structural Biology Section at the Vaccine Research Center, National Institutes of Health (NIH), from 2000 to 2023. In December 2023, he returned to Columbia University as the Director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center. His research is internationally recognized for defining the structural aspects of HIV-1 envelope glycoproteins and their interactions with antibodies, contributing significantly to the understanding of viral evasion mechanisms and vaccine design. His work has focused on applying atomic-level structural biology tools to develop effective vaccines against HIV-1 and other viral pathogens, including the design of stabilized immunogens and the elicitation of broadly neutralizing antibodies. Throughout his career, Kwong has made pivotal contributions to the structural elucidation of HIV-1 envelope components, mechanisms of immune evasion, and vaccine strategies, including the development of immunogens that have informed licensed vaccines such as GSK's AREXVY and Moderna's mRESVIA. He has published over 400 peer-reviewed papers and mentored numerous postdoctoral fellows, many of whom now lead independent research groups.

Research topics

• Biology
• Virology
• Immunology
• Medicine
• Molecular biology
• Computational biology
• Biochemistry
• Chemistry
• Anatomy
• Neuroscience

Selected publications

• Potent neutralizing antibodies against multiple epitopes on SARS-CoV-2 spike

  Nature · 2020 · 1609 citations

  . Epitope mapping showed that this collection of nineteen antibodies was about equally divided between those directed against the receptor-binding domain (RBD) and those directed against the N-terminal domain (NTD), indicating that both of these regions at the top of the viral spike are immunogenic. In addition, two other powerful neutralizing antibodies recognized quaternary epitopes that overlap with the domains at the top of the spike. Cryo-electron microscopy reconstructions of one antibody…

  DOI

• In vitro and in vivo functions of SARS-CoV-2 infection-enhancing and neutralizing antibodies

  Cell · 2021 · 330 citations

  DOI

• Structure-Based Design with Tag-Based Purification and In-Process Biotinylation Enable Streamlined Development of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Molecular Probes

  Cell Reports · 2020 · 74 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Biotin-labeled molecular probes, comprising specific regions of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike, would be helpful in the isolation and characterization of antibodies targeting this recently emerged pathogen. Here, we design constructs incorporating an N-terminal purification tag, a site-specific protease-cleavage site, the probe region of interest, and a C-terminal sequence targeted by biotin ligase. Probe regions include full-length spike ectodomain as wel…

  DOI

• Prefusion structure, evasion and neutralization of HSV-1 glycoprotein B

  Nature Microbiology · 2025-10-31 · 11 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Glycoprotein B (gB) refolds between prefusion and postfusion conformations to facilitate herpesvirus entry into host cells. However, the isolation of prefusion-specific neutralizing antibodies, effective against other viral entry machines, has been challenging. Here we describe stabilization of the prefusion gB ectodomain from herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1), determine ectodomain structures at 2.9- to 4.1-Å resolution using cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and isolate a prefusion-specific…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Structural and genetic basis of HIV-1 envelope V2 apex recognition by rhesus broadly neutralizing antibodies

  The Journal of Experimental Medicine · 2025-07-10 · 10 citations

  articleOpen access

  Broadly neutralizing antibodies targeting the V2 apex of HIV-1 envelope are desired as vaccine design templates, but few have been described. Here, we report 11 lineages of V2 apex-neutralizing antibodies from simian-human immunodeficiency virus (SHIV)-infected rhesus macaques and determine cryo-EM structures for 9. A single V2 apex-neutralizing lineage accounted for cross-clade breadth in most macaques, and somatic hypermutation relative to breadth was generally low, exemplified by antibody V03…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant Z01AI005022

  NIH · $733k

• NIH Grant Z01AI005068

  NIH · $194k

• NIH Grant Z01AI005069

  NIH · $309k

Frequent coauthors

• John R. Mascola

  806 shared

• Tongqing Zhou

  National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

  633 shared

• Lawrence Shapiro

  Columbia University

  561 shared

• Baoshan Zhang

  National Institutes of Health

  557 shared

• Nicole A. Doria‐Rose

  National Institutes of Health

  362 shared

• Jason Gorman

  361 shared

• Mark K. Louder

  National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

  319 shared

• Gwo‐Yu Chuang

  Moderna Therapeutics (United States)

  316 shared

Labs

• Columbia University Irving Medical Center Biochemistry and Molecular BiophysicsPI

Education

• Ph.D.

  Columbia University

  1995

Awards & honors

• Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers…
• Norman P. Salzman Award in Virology (2012)
• Fellow of the American Society of Microbiology (2004)
• Director’s Award, National Institutes of Health (2007)
• NIAID Merit Award (2010)

Similar researchers at Columbia University

• Tom Maniatish-162
• Wayne A Hendricksonh-134
• Stephen P. Goffh-123