The public defence will be held as a video conference over Zoom.
The defence will follow regular procedure as far as possible, hence it will be open to the public and the audience can ask ex auditorio questions when invited to do so.
Click here to participate in the public defence
Due to copyright reasons, an electronic copy of the thesis must be ordered from the faculty. In order for the faculty to have time to process the order, it must be received by the faculty no later than 2 days prior to the public defence. Orders received later than 2 days before the defence will not be processed. Inquiries regarding the thesis after the public defence must be addressed to the candidate.
Digital Trial Lecture – time and place
Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Post Doctoral Research Fellow Davide Angeletti, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
- Second opponent: Associate Professor Kristin Greve-Isdahl Mohn, University of Bergen
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Professor Marit Inngjerdingen, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Associate Professor Andreas Lossius, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Professor Bjarne Bogen, University of Oslo
Summary
Current seasonal influenza vaccines provide approximately 40-50 % protection against disease. Each year the vaccine needs to be renewed due to high mutation frequency of the virus. Therefore, there is need for improved influenza vaccine that provides broader protection against all subtypes of influenza.
In the thesis, cDC1-targeted vaccines for improved T cell responses, the candidate Anna Lysén have evaluated how different immunization strategies can improve T cell responses by targeting vaccines to conventional Dendritic cell type 1 (cDC1).
Targeting antigen to the surface receptor Xcr1 expressed on cDC1 has in previous studies in mice been shown to improve immunogenicity and enhanced both T cell responses and antibody responses. In this thesis, the candidate shows that DNA immunization at different sites (intradermal vs intramuscular), and that the choice of surface receptor on the DCs to target (cDC1s vs cDC2s), can influence the polarization of the immune response and the type of T cells that are induced. cDC1 targeted Xcl1-fusion vaccines delivered intradermally rapidly induce Th1 polarized T cells and as a consequence an IgG2a dominated antibody response in mice. In contrast, fusion vaccines that target cDC2 induce a more mixed Th1/Th2 response and an exclusive IgG1 response. While intradermal delivery induced the best immune response for Xcl1-fusion vaccines, CCL3-fusion induced stronger responses and more cytotoxic CD8+ T cells after intramuscular vaccination. When Xcl1-fusion vaccines were administered as protein intranasally in combination with adjuvant, significantly higher levels of T cells were detected compared to a non-targeted vaccine control.
The findings in this thesis demonstrate that vaccines targeting cDC can enhance induction of T cell responses and vaccine efficiency independent of their delivery site, but that different immunization strategies may drastically influence the polarization of the immune response.
Additional information
Contact the research support staff.