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DR PETER KELLEHER

Key Collaborator

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, Department of Medicine: Infectious Diseases, Imperial College

Peter Kelleher is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin. He trained in internal medicine in Dublin and clinical immunology in London and Oxford. His PhD thesis on dendritic cell function in retroviral infection was conducted under the supervision of Professor Stella Knight at the APRG Unit, Imperial College London. Dr Kelleher research interests are in the immunology of HIV-1 infection and primary antibody deficiency and the application of novel immunological technologies to the diagnosis of patients with infectious diseases and immune based disorders. Current research interests include studies evaluating the contribution of HIV-1 specific antibody responses in acquisition of HIV-1 and control of acute HIV infection in high risk men who have sex with men. We also focus on defects in B cell memory may underlie the risks of invasive bacterial disease and impaired bacterial vaccine responses in HIV-1 infection.  The laboratory is the investigation of novel immune defect in patients with primary antibody deficiency. The immunology laboratory is also involved in multi-centre clinical and laboratory based studies European and UK in patient with HIV-1 infection, CVID, complement deficiencies and ventilator associated pneumonia.

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SUNSHINE HARVEY

Imperial College London

My project aims to elucidate how different strains of Aspergillus fumigatus affect the immune responses of people with Cystic Fibrosis. We have a large range of different strains A. fumigatus taken directly from the airways of people with Cystic Fibrosis. I will monitor the responses, to these different strains, of immune cells from healthy individuals and people with Cystic Fibrosis. In particular I will be focusing on how individual fungal components of these strains are specifically influencing the immune response and the interactions of two immune cell types, dendritic and T cells, as these interactions can impact the overall outcome of the immune response. 

I will be determining the genetic sequence of antibodies produced by healthy individuals in response to these strains. In the future, this sequence could help towards Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) therapy. CAR therapy is where immune cells from people with Cystic Fibrosis are given receptors with the same sequence as the healthy antibodies, therefore now allowing their immune cells to identify the A. fumigatus.

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