“Emerging infectious diseases in humans and animals require new or improved vaccines”

Cécile van Els is professor of ‘Vaccinology: Correlates of Protection’. Van Els focuses her research on unravelling the immune response chain of the immune system, leading to effective and sustainable protection against infectious diseases. Key properties of an effective immune response include specificity, quantity, quality and localisation of tissue-resident memory. These so-called correlates of protection differ for each pathogen but are still unknown for most infectious diseases.

Need for new vaccines
There is a growing demand for knowledge about the effect of vaccines. Within the area of human infectious disease control, vaccines make a major contribution to public health by reducing infectious diseases. Vaccination also has a major social and economic impact in the veterinary field. Emerging (new) infectious diseases in humans and animals require new or improved vaccines. Especially in these times of urbanisation, increasing travel, climate changes and intensive livestock farming, emerging infectious diseases can spread faster and prevention is important.

Areas of interest:

• Immune response chain of the immune system
• Protection against infectious diseases
• Correlates of protection
  
  

• Utrecht Molecular Immunology Hub
• Life Sciences
• Dossier coronaviruses