08 Aug 2024
Dr van de Sandt receives NHMRC Investigator grant for viral immunity research
Why does the same virus cause mild infections in one person and have devastating outcomes in another and how can immunity be restored, particularly in high-risk populations?
The University of Melbourne’s Dr Carolien van de Sandt, Senior Research Fellow at the Doherty Institute, has been awarded a $1.6 million Emerging Leadership 2 NHMRC Investigator Grant to answer these questions.
Investigator grants are the largest funding scheme of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NMHRC). The grants support high-performing researchers at all career stages with five-year funding for health and medical research, allowing them to pursue new research directions and explore collaborations.
Dr van de Sandt said the grant will support the establishment of a research team that will investigate the development of influenza virus-specific T cell immunity across the human lifespan and provide new insights into how T cell immunity is generated, why it breaks down and how it can be restored.
“One in five people suffers from weak immunity, which can lead to severe and life-threatening infections. Traditional vaccines enhance healthy immunity but often fail to repair compromised immune functions, leaving high-risk populations inadequately protected,” said Dr van de Sandt.
“My aim is to use knowledge from this research to develop new interventions and vaccination strategies that allow us to restore and boost immunity in high-risk populations like the elderly.”
Throughout her early career, Dr van de Sandt has contributed to landmark studies including the world’s first publication of the SARS-CoV-2-specific immune response in Nature Medicine, and her study on SARS-CoV-2-specific immunity in children published in Immunity.
In 2023, she was the first author of a paper published in Nature Immunology, titled ‘Newborn and child-like molecular signatures in older adults stem from TCR shifts across human lifespan’. Together with her team and collaborators, Dr van de Sandt made a world-first discovery revealing that killer T cells directed against influenza viruses in older adults closely resemble those found in newborns and children, but that they struggle to recognise infected cells – a finding that unlocks the potential for the development of better vaccines and therapies tailored to different age groups. (Find out more here.)
Acknowledging the NHMRC for this prestigious grant, Dr van de Sandt also thanked her team.
“I am excited about this grant and thank the NHMRC for supporting my work. I am also deeply grateful for the support of my mentors, especially Professor Katherine Kedzierska, as well as my colleagues and team.”
The University of Melbourne’s Professor Katherine Kedzierska, Head of the Human T cell Laboratory at the Doherty Institute, expressed immense pride in Dr van de Sandt’s remarkable achievements.
“With the support of the NHMRC EL2 funding, Carolien will further succeed in medical research build her independence and an international profile in viral immunology,” said Professor Kedzierska.
More about the NMHRC Investigator grants here.