Systems biological assessment of human immune responses to infection and vaccination

Dr. Prabhu Arunachalam
Assistant Professor, Immunobiology
Department of Immunobiology
University of Arizona

Dr. Prabhu Arunachalam is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Immunobiology in the University of Arizona. He transitioned earlier this year from the Institute for Immunity, Transplantation and Infection, Stanford University.  With over a decade of interdisciplinary experience, his work encompasses systems immunology, vaccine development, and HIV research. Dr. Arunachalam’s pioneering research during the pandemic identified immune signatures of mild versus severe COVID-19 that contained potential therapeutic targets and discovered an “innate memory”-like response to the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccination. His post-doctoral research demonstrating the synergy between vaccine-induced T cells and neutralizing antibodies in eliciting durable protection against mucosal SHIV infection has re-energized the field of HIV vaccines and highlighted the role for T cells in promoting protection with low neutralizing antibody titers. Additionally, he played a key role in leading multiple non-human primate studies that led to the clinical approval of two adjuvanted subunit vaccines against COVID-19. Dr. Arunachalam will talk about understanding the human immune system using systems biological approaches.