PhD Scholarship in Metagenetic approach to analyse vaccine immunomodulation in the elderly

This scholarship supports doctoral research using bioinformatics and data from a DTP/influenza vaccine clinical trial to investigate how innate immunity and training differs across demographics and how this affects vaccine response. The research will analyze whether vaccination responses are affected by the microbiome profile, and whether it changes according to the vaccination sequence, age (young adults or elderly), or sex of vaccinees. The project involves a large-scale vaccine trial (n=600) in Tasmania mapping how innate immunity and innate training differs in humans based on age and sex. The research will use a systems biology approach to investigate whether immunological changes in young and elderly are characterized with changes in gut microbial composition. The PhD candidate will use bioinformatics analysis pipelines to analyze metagenetic data, employing packages such as trimomatic, FastQ screen, centrifuge/kraken and others to investigate complex microbiome datasets in the context of precision medicine and personalized patient care.