Elena Stylianou

Dr Elena Stylianou is a post-doctoral research scientist at the Jenner Institute, University of Oxford UK. She works in the group of Prof. Helen McShane, developing novel vaccines against TB. She has been working in the field of TB vaccines for the past 8 years.

Her research focuses mainly on developing new vaccines against tuberculosis (TB). BCG is the only currently available vaccine which although ineffective at protecting against adult pulmonary disease, protects against childhood forms of TB. For this reason BCG will continue to be used and it is therefore important to identify a booster vaccine that will improve its protective efficacy.

Most of her work is based on two recombinant viral vectors, simian adenovirus and modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA), as vaccines. I have been testing vaccination regimens that incorporate BCG into heterologous prime-boost strategies, and assessing their ability to induce responses thought to be relevant for protection. As a final step, these regimens are evaluated for their protective efficacy against a subsequent challenge with TB.

Moreover the viral vectors are used to screen a large number of tuberculosis antigens for their ability to induce cellular immune responses, but also the protection they confer against TB.