AIVRT Consortium Meeting at TCD, TTMI, St James Hospital, Friday 19 January 2024
Dr Patrick Walsh and Prof Ed Lavelle (both TCD) co-hosted our third network meeting on Friday, the 19th of January 2024, at the Trinity Translational Medicine Institute, St James's Hospital, Dublin 8. All PhD and post-doctoral researchers, PIs and some guests from University College Dublin, University College Cork, Trinity College Dublin and Queen's University Belfast were there. It was great to meet the most recent arrivals of researchers onto the project. Our guests included PhDs and Post-docs working on Vaccine research projects in the participating labs, who enriched our discussions.
AIVRT Group Photo at TCD, TTMI, St James Hospital, Friday 19 January 2024
The AIVRT postdoctoral and PhD researchers gave presentations on their projects. Great progress is being made across the AIVRT programme. New vaccine antigen candidates have already been identified against Staphylococus aureus and Escherichia coli pathotypes (an”ESKAPEE” pathogen); another PhD researcher reported partial protection against Acinetobacter baumannii infections with the first in a series of antigens. Adjuvants are being explored to stimulate optimal mucosal responses, because most bacteria infect via mucosal surfaces, while protective immune responses to S. aureus are also being explored. Understanding these immune responses is essential to optimising the most effective vaccines. A key advantage of the AIVRT network is its multidisciplinary nature. Researchers from UCC and QUB presented their research on the factors that influence vaccine uptake, i.e the readiness of individuals to receive a vaccine, and vaccine coverage. The newer arrivals introduced themselves and described their future research plans.
In the afternoon, we held an open discussion which focused on maximising collaborations across the AIRVT hub. Each PDR and PhD identified another AIVRT participant with whom they would like to collaborate. We had a wonderful exchange of ideas, and several new collaborations were seeded. The chat continued over pizzas into the evening.
Looking forward to the next meeting in June!
