Institute: Imperial College London
Biography
My research programme spans the spectrum form bench to bedside to public health policy representing the full pathway of translational medical research. In addition to inventing and validating ELISpot IGRA, the first T cell-based diagnostic test in medicine (2001-2010), I have made several pioneering landmark contributions to our understanding immunity to intracellular pathogens, in particular in TB and flu. These landmark advances include: identification of vitamin D deficiency as risk factor for extraplumonary TB (2015); identification of the first correlate of protective immunity against symptomatic pandemic influenza (2013); discovery of a new mechanism of action of BCG vaccine (2005); discovery of the previously unrecognised phenomenon of transient, self-resolving tuberculosis infection (2006); identification of regulatory T cells in TB (2006); development & validation of a novel high-throughput platform for sensitive measurement of polyfunctional antigen-specific T cells (2010); discovery of a new highly immunodominant TB vaccine target, EspC (2011); the first identification of immunological memory in CD1-restricted T cells; the identification of HLA class-restricted CD8 T cells specific for TB (1998) and the first discovery of rapid effector function in virus-specific CD8 T cells after viral clearance (1997). These ground-breaking findings have substantially influenced the design, development and evaluation of new TB and universal influenza vaccines.
Key publications
A list of publications can be found here.
Web links of interest