“The goal of my project is to understand the contribution of the T cell response in different viral infections, and in particular, I want to understand what type of protein of the virus is recognized by T cells. This research could help guide the design of future vaccines and help us understand how current vaccines might fight emerging viruses.”
What if we can prepare for the next pandemic by improving our knowledge of virus-specific T cells?
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us the threats posed by emerging viruses. T cells are important in fighting viral infections. They can limit viral circulation and lessen the severity of the disease, even if trained to fight other viruses of the same family. I have devoted my research career to developing pipelines to understand how T cells recognize specific viruses. Our blood holds virus-specific memory T cells and can tell researchers about our previous viral infections. By detecting virus-specific T cells, scientists can figure out if the cells played a role in fighting a particular infection. We can also pinpoint what part of the virus these T cells recognize. With the help of SPARK, I plan to expand this approach on a large scale to understudied viral infections. This research could help guide the design of future vaccines and help us understand how current vaccines might fight new emerging viruses.
SPARKing Impact: This research could help guide the design of future vaccines and help us understand how current vaccines might fight emerging viruses.
“The goal of my project is to understand the contribution of the T cell response in different viral infections, and in particular, I want to understand what type of protein of the virus is recognized by T cells. This research could help guide the design of future vaccines and help us understand how current vaccines might fight emerging viruses.”