The Microbiome and Vaccine Response

The human gut harbours a complex microbial ecosystem that plays an important role in shaping the host immune system. One area that has yet to be fully explored is the ability of the gut microbiome to influence the efficacy of T cell vaccines through direct, or indirect influences on CD8+ T cell responsiveness.

This studentship will seek to understand and exploit the ability of commensal gut microbes to influence the human immune response to T cell vaccination. This is an interdisciplinary project that will begin by combining trials of viral vaccines (e.g. HIV and Ebola vaccines) with in-depth multi-omic analysis to identify functional variation in the gut microbiome associated with immunological markers of vaccine success. It will progress to using in vivo models to study the potential of specific microbes (or microbial products) as adjuvants to improve T cell vaccine response.

The studentship will develop interdisciplinary skills in immunology, computational biology, and use of in vivo models as a basis for studying immune-gut microbiome interaction.