Analysing immune responses to vaccination

Project Summary

Studies of licensed vaccines such as the seasonal influenza virus vaccine present a valuable system to analyse post vaccine cellular and antibody responses. We are looking to recruit health care workers and HIV positive individuals who have not yet received their flu vaccine to investigate this further. 

Who is eligible:
Individuals who are about to receive the flu vaccine and willing to give blood at three time points. These are: up to 30 days before their flu vaccination is administered, 7 days after, and 6 months after receiving the vaccine. We are also interested in recruiting HIV positive patients that meet the same criteria. Additionally, there will be a short questionnaire to complete at each visit. 

Exclusion criteria: 
Those co-infected with mycobacterium tuberculosis, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, Malaria. Also excluded are those with an AIDS Defining condition, undergoing concurrent cancer treatment, concurrent steroid treatment, pregnant or planning a pregnancy or with a previous allergic reaction to influenza vaccine/egg allergy.

If you are a potential participant in the study, you can contact a member of the study team to discuss joining the study – see Contact list on this page.

Key Project Information

Dates: October 2020 to October 2025

Status: Current

UCL lead/Principal Investigator: Dr Dimitra Peppa, Dr Richard Gilson and Dr Laura Waters

Lead organisation: Division of Infection and Immunity, University College London

Project lead: Dr Laura McCoy

Partners: Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust; Division of Infection and Immunity, University College London

Location: UK

Funding: European Research Council Starting Grant: Understanding HIV-specific B cell function and viral immunogenicity (L E McCoy).  National Institutes of Health (NIH) Cooperative agreement grant UM1 AI 00645: Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology and Immunogen Discovery (CHAVI-ID) (Persephone Borrow (overall grant PI Bart Haynes))

Contact: Rebecca Matthews (rebecca.matthews5@nhs.net), Paulina Prymas (paulina.prymas@nhs.net)