Vaccination is among the most impactful tools in our healthcare system today, however there is significant variability in the efficacy and durability of current vaccines available to the public. In many cases, this variability leaves the most vulnerable people in our communities at the greatest risk. Hennepin Healthcare Laboratory for Translational Immunology and Vaccine Research is primarily interested in the variability in immune responses to vaccination driven by a person’s medical and exposure history. Our hope is that understanding how different people respond to a vaccine may lead to vaccines that can be tailored to optimally protect the individual who is being vaccinated.

Our group evaluates vaccine immunity along the spectrum, ranging from model systems that modulate immune responses to vaccination all the way to population-based research. We utilize advanced immunology methods with can characterize the specific immune cells responding to a vaccine or infection. We have a specific interest in how host factors such as age, comorbid conditions and inflammation affect the immunogenicity and durability of vaccines. This is in acknowledgement that persons living with these conditions are both at increased risk of hospitalization and death from vaccine preventable diseases, but also are those individuals are least likely to mount a potent and protective vaccine response.