Centre for Infection & Immunity

Primary Supervisor: Professor Warwick Britton AO & Professor Angelo Izzo
Supervisory Team: Linda Izzo
Centre: Infection & Immunity

To develop new tuberculosis vaccines we need to better understand the triggers associated with innate immune cell activation. This project will examine the early interactions between vaccine components and cells of the innate immune response.

Primary Supervisor: Professor Warwick Britton AO
Supervisory Team: Professor Angelo Izzo and
Dr Isaac G. Sakala
Centre: Infection & Immunity

Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the deadliest infectious diseases worldwide, and the rise of
multi-drug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) exacerbates the situation.
Although the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine has been used for over 100 years as
the standard TB vaccine for newborns, it is only partially effective and has had limited impact
on global TB control. A successful TB vaccine for newborns could dramatically transform
global control efforts by significantly reducing TB-related illness and death. We are
developing novel multistage TB vaccines using various new-generation adjuvants that induce
protective immunity against pulmonary Mtb infection in adult mice. Our previous research
has shown that these adjuvants promote protective immunity when used in inactivated and
subunit influenza vaccines in newborn mice.

This student project aims to explore various combinations of new adjuvants and Mtb protein
subunit antigens in an innovative model of newborn immunisation for protection against
pulmonary Mtb infection. These studies will investigate the early and long-term immune
responses induced by different protein/adjuvant vaccines in newborn mice and determine
how these responses correlate with protective efficacy against aerosol Mtb challenges.

Opportunities: The project will provide extensive training in cellular immunology including advanced immunophenotyping of innate and adaptive immune cells using flow and mass cytometry, multiplex cytokine assays and scRNA-Seq technology. The student will be part of an international network of scientists conducting cutting edge vaccine antigen/adjuvant and drug discovery research, vaccine
research and development, and contributing to the global control of TB epidemic.