Pneumococcal vaccine

Join our leading research into a serotype independent pneumococcal vaccine.

Prevention of pneumococcal disease poses an ongoing challenge due to the limited serotype coverage of current capsular polysaccharide-based vaccines.

We have recently reported that serotype-independent protection can be achieved following mucosal administration of a whole-cell non-encapsulated Streptococcus pneumoniae vaccine inactivated using gamma-irradiation (γ-PN).

The proposed research project will investigate the effect of gamma-irradiation on gene expression and the ability of gamma-irradiated bacteria to induce increased innate immune signalling and diversified reactivity of antibody responses to pneumococcal antigens.

Various techniques will be used in this study including flow cytometry, tissue culturing, animal handling, electron microscopy, bacteria growing and titration, ELISA, PCR, Western Blot, etc.