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Speaker: Dr Alice Denton, Department of Immunology & Inflammation, Imperial College London
Host: Katelyn Spillane
The failure to generate enduring humoral immunity after vaccination is a hallmark of advancing age. This can be attributed to a reduction in the germinal centre response, which generates long-lived antibody-secreting cells that provide protection against (re)infection. Despite the intensive investigation into the effect of age on the lymphoid compartment, the primary cellular defect that causes impaired germinal centres in ageing has not been identified. Our research explores how lymph node stromal cells contribute to immune homeostasis and the development of adaptive immunity and demonstrates a key role for the lymph node microenvironment in dictating vaccine efficacy in ageing. Our current work investigates how lymph node stromal cells respond to immunisation to support germinal centre development, and how dysregulation of this support network in ageing can be targeted to improve vaccine efficacy.