Understanding local and systemic immune responses in natural and experimental human influenza virus infection to combat disease

The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic resulted in 20-50 million deaths worldwide from disease caused by influenza virus infection. 100-years later, influenza remains an emerging virus with pandemic potential.

Importantly, also seasonal influenza continues to be a global health problem despite available antibiotics to treat secondary bacterial infections and vaccines to provide partial protection. This is because we still do not fully understand what dictates influenza pathogenesis and disease severity. Human studies are crucial to understand pathogenesis in humans.

Here, we will do state-of-the-art immunological studies on human respiratory immune cells at steady state and in clinically well-characterized patients with acute and convalescent disease to determine how they influence disease severity. We also utilize live attenuated influenza nasal vaccination as a controlled model of human infection.

Immune cells differ depending on where they are located in the body. A unique aspect of our work is that we study cells from the site of infection as well as those in circulation.

We study both innate cells that are the first responders to incoming virus and the adaptive immune responses that is required to clear infection and generate long-lasting memory.

The data generated will improve our knowledge on human mucosal respiratory immunology, our understanding of influenza immunopathology and increase our preparedness for future outbreaks of emerging viruses.