Seminar by Arup K Chakraborty "The Evolution of Antibody Responses upon Vaccination"
This seminar is on THURSDAY 27th April at 4PM
Infectious disease-causing pathogens have plagued humanity since antiquity, and the COVID-19 pandemic has been a vivid reminder of this perpetual existential threat. Vaccination has saved more lives than any other medical procedure, and effective vaccines have helped control the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we do not have effective vaccines against rapidly mutating viruses, such as HIV; nor do we have a universal vaccine against seasonal variants of influenza or SARS-CoV-2 variants that may evolve in the future. The ability to develop effective vaccines that protect us from highly mutable viruses will help create a more pandemic-resilient world. I will describe how by bringing together approaches from statistical physics, virology and immunology, progress is being made to address this challenge. I will focus on broadly protective antibody responses. First, I will describe some general principles and then I will discuss how by combining physics-based modeling and data from humans who received COVID vaccines we are learning new mechanisms underlying the antibody response upon infection or vaccination.
Date: 27 April 2023, 16:00 (Thursday, 1st week, Trinity 2023)
Venue: Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, Headington OX3 7FY
Venue Details: This seminar will be held in The Kennedy Institute Lecture Theatre at 4pm
Speaker: Prof. Arup K Chakraborty (MIT, Department of Biological Engineering)
Organising department: Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences (NDORMS)
Organisers: Wilby Chaplin (Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology), Dr Jelena Bezbradica (The Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology), Professor Irina Udalova (Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology)
Organiser contact email address: reception@kennedy.ox.ac.uk
Hosts: Prof Dame Fiona Powrie (The Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology), Professor Mike Dustin (Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology)
Part of: Kennedy Institute Seminars
Booking required?: Required
Booking url: https://medsci.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJErdu2opj4rH9ZPpw6udL1a_liAhtQyrEVi
Audience: Members of the University only
Editors: Josie Eade, Ellen Mobbs, Lola Chaplin