Systemic and mucosal immunity to SARS-CoV2 and influenza

Host: Professor David Tscharke

Abstract

Productive infection and/or progression to severe disease following exposure to respiratory pathogens such as SARS-Cov-2 or influenza is tempered by the host immune response. Importantly, effective vaccination can protect against viral disease and relies upon the elicitation of immunological effectors from the adaptive immune system, namely antibody and pathogen-specific T and B lymphocyte populations. We studied adaptive immunity in humans following infection or vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 to gain insights into the kinetics, localisation and responsiveness of the adaptive immune response. Further, we characterised the elicitation of resident memory B cell populations by viral infection, and development of vaccine strategies to bolster immunity within the respiratory tract.

Biography

Doctor Adam Wheatley is a Laboratory Head in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne, housed within the Peter Doherty Institute of Infection and Immunity. After studying at ANU and University of Melbourne, he undertook post-doctoral training at the Vaccine Research Center, NIH, USA. There, he focussed upon defining correlates of immune protection following clinical immunisation trials and characterising humoral immunity elicited to experimental HIV and influenza vaccines. He returned to the University of Melbourne in 2015 to continue his research, where his team focuses upon understanding mechanisms to generate broad and lasting antibody-based protection against viral diseases such as influenza and SARS-CoV-2. Specific interests include the control of B cell trafficking, germinal centre and memory formation, the basis for cross-reactive recognition of antigenically diverse pathogens by antibody, and the rational design and pre-clinical testing of novel vaccine concepts.