June Oxford & Pirbright B cell meeting

We hosted the Oxford/ Pirbright B cell meeting in the Department of Biochemistry again this June, attended by Barney, Anika, Lloyd, and run by Fran, Ana, and Carolyn. Support for the meeting also came from Twist Bioscience (for sponsoring lunch).

The meeting included selected talks on foot-and-mouth disease virus and SARS-CoV-2, as well as a discussion session on how to harness mucosal immunity for protection against respiratory diseases more broadly. Carolyn shared a talk with Edinburgh collaborator Wiebke Nahrendorf on “Human bone marrow and lymph node sampling for analysis of B cell responses to infection and vaccination” based on our ongoing BIO-001 and BIO-004 trials. A poster from Millie was also presented at the lunchtime poster session entitled “Development of a high-throughput multiplexed screen for the detection of antigen-specific B cells following malaria challenge”, outlining a current HICVAC-funded project with Carolyn, Kirsty, and Ange.

Following this meeting, Carolyn has now handed over leadership of the Oxford/ Pirbright B cell Group to Fran – if you are affiliated with either the University of Oxford or the Pirbright Institute and are interesting in joining this B cell network, please get in touch with her directly to be added to the mailing list : francesca.donnellan@bioch.ox.ac.uk.