Kinetics & phenotype of T cells after SARS-CoV-2 challenge of seronegative adults

Human infection challenge has the unique capacity for detailed characterisation of the response to infection, to accelerate understanding of pathogenesis, transmission, immunity and mechanisms of resistance to disease in a controlled setting. Human challenge with SARS-CoV-2 was therefore developed to investigate viral and immune dynamics, with the longer-term aim of enabling rapid and early-stage testing of novel diagnostics, treatments and vaccines. A SARS-CoV-2 human challenge model revealed immune kinetics over the course of primary infection with SARS-CoV-2 in young, healthy adults. Mild disease following human challenge with SARS-CoV-2 was associated with T cell activation and proliferation in the majority of infected participants. These data reveal factors associated with resolution of and resistance to infection with SARS-CoV-2.

Dr. Helen Wagstaffe is an immunologist in the Department of Infectious Disease at Imperial College London. She received her PhD from The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine on natural killer cells and vaccination against Ebola and Influenza virus. She conducted research on the development of immunological assays to measure antibody level and function after vaccination at UCL before joining Imperial College.
She is currently a Research Associate working with Chris Chiu focusing on early phase clinical vaccine trials and experimental infection studies. Using clinical samples from study participants, she investigates innate, humoral and cell-mediated immunity in respiratory viral infections, including Influenza, SARS-CoV-2 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Specifically, focusing on developing, optimising and validating assays to define novel correlates of protection that will enable us to design more effective vaccines against these viral pathogens