Hosted by Cardiff University's School of Medicine
Abstract: Vaccines have had a transformative impact on global health. Despite this impact, the immunological processes involved in protective responses are not entirely understood and vaccine development has been largely empirical. Recent technological advances offer the opportunity to reveal the immunology underlying vaccine response at an unprecedented resolution. These data could revolutionise the way vaccines are developed and tested — further augmenting their role in securing the health of people around the world.
Biography: Daniel O’Connor is an Associate Professor and Head of Bioinformatics at the Oxford Vaccine Group, University of Oxford. Daniel has both a wet-laboratory and bioinformatics background, his main research interests relate to the analysis of contemporary, high-dimensional datasets (e.g. genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic) to elucidate the molecular determinants of immune responses to vaccines and infectious diseases. Vaccine responses and the persistence of vaccine-immunity vary considerably between individuals, this is particularly relevant in childhood, as infants generally have lower magnitude immune responses that wane more rapidly than adults. His research utilises contemporary methods, such as genome-wide genotyping and next-generation sequencing, to explore the mechanisms underlying immunological and physiological responses to childhood vaccinations.
Register at Eventbrite