Population cellular immunity tests
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Developing T cell tests for more effective assessment of population immunity to current and emerging infectious diseases
IRAS ID
335525
Contact name
Martin Scurr
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
ImmunoServ Ltd
Duration of Study in the UK
10 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
In order to gain immunity to infectious diseases, an individual must generate an adequate immune response that protects them from future infection. This is often measured by looking for antibodies found in blood samples. Unfortunately, antibody responses naturally wane over time. However, long-term protection against infectious diseases not only comes from antibodies, but from cells of the immune system called 'T cells', which play a critical role in controlling and eradicating infections.
Ordinarily, techniques that measure T cell responses are laborious, hard to standardise, expensive and labour-intensive. ImmunoServ's team members successfully developed the world's first whole blood-based test to measure T cell responses in a scalable, standardisable format, known as the COVID-19 Immuno-T test. Our highly publicised work on this test identified the T cell response as a key correlate of protection against COVID- 19 and highlighted the power of using T cell response measurements for immunity screens and diagnostics.
This project will establish a simple, scalable test that identifies the presence of reactive T cells from a single tube of blood to a range of infectious diseases, beyond COVID-19. A simple, effective measurement of an individual's T cell response to certain infectious diseases would revolutionise our understanding of what constitutes protective immunity. In addition, as vaccines are developed and rolled out, results from the tests developed here will yield critical additional information as to whether an adequate immune response that protects individuals from infection has been generated. This blood test would also enable large scale T cell immunity studies to be performed, crucial for assessing population immunity and monitoring vaccine efficacy.
REC name
London - Queen Square Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/LO/0596
Date of REC Opinion
18 Oct 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion