Research Projects

The broad aim of this PhD project is to determine whether recalled memory B cells against epitopes shared with past strains dominate vaccine responses among participants who are highly vaccinated and hence limit the generation of B cells and antibodies against epitopes that are unique to the new vaccine strain. In turn, a core component of this project will be to understand the epitope range of B cells and antibodies induced by vaccination among participants with different vaccination histories. The epitope range of influenza reactive B cells will be partially defined by flow cytometric analysis of B cell binding to influenza protein probes representing current and past strains, and will be further defined by sorting single influenza-reactive B cells to sequence and express their antibodies. The strain and epitope specificity of human B cell-derived antibodies will then be determined via standard serological techniques using wild type and epitope engineered viruses. Similar methods will be used to understand the epitope range of serum antibodies induced by vaccination. In summary, this project offers to the opportunity to learn a broad range of techniques in cellular immunology, serology, virology and molecular immunology; to link findings to a large epidemiological data set using statistical methods and programs such as R; and to contribute to an important area of translational research.

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