New research to help vaccines work better as we age

Supported by Catalyst Seeding funding from the Royal Society Te Apārangi, the project will investigate how protein regulation changes with age and affects vaccine responses. Alongside the laboratory work, the team will engage with kaumātua (Māori elders), through the Rauawaawa Kaumātua Charitable Trust, recognising that vaccines only make a difference when communities trust the research behind them. 

“New Zealand's population is ageing, and developing more effective vaccines for older adults is a promising way to support healthy ageing,” says Dr Michelle Linterman, who is leading the project.  

“Vaccination is among the most powerful tools we have for preventing disease, yet vaccines work less well as we get older, leaving older adults more vulnerable. By generating evidence to help design vaccines for ageing immune systems, this project aims to help reduce avoidable illness and support older adults to continue their vital roles within communities.” 

The research centres on a process called ‘proteostasis’ – a cell's internal quality control system that balances making, folding, moving and destroying proteins to keep the cell healthy. The team suspects that as we age, the ability for these cells to keep their proteins healthy weakens, and contributes to why vaccines are less effective.  

“Impaired proteostasis is one of the hallmarks of ageing,” she says. “We think that age-related changes in how immune cells make and manage their proteins is a key reason vaccines lose their protective power as we get older. However, measuring this has been difficult, because the immune cells we want to study are rare in the small blood samples we’re working with.”   

To overcome this challenge, the Linterman Lab is partnering with Dr Andrew Howden at the University of Dundee, whose laboratory has developed a world-leading method for reading the full set of proteins in very small samples.  

“Dr Howden has developed a method to quantify all the detectable proteins in as few as 2,000 immune cells at a time. This is the cutting edge of research. We will use the flow cytometry facility at the Malaghan Institute’s Hugh Green Technology Centre to sort these rare populations of immune cells, which will then be analysed in Dundee. Our researchers will also spend time in each other’s labs to build skills and share ideas.” 

Combining the Dundee team’s technical expertise with the Linterman Lab’s knowledge of the ageing immune system, the collaboration aims to establish a lasting research partnership to develop vaccines that protect people as they age.  

As part of the project, the research team is working with the Rauawaawa Kaumātua Charitable Trust in Hamilton, including sharing resources about vaccination and the research at the Kaumātua Olympics, an annual event which brings together around 350 kaumātua from across the North Island.  

“Rauawaawa are innovators in caring for older people and are kaumātua-led, ensuring that the services they develop and deliver are fit for purpose. We share a goal of supporting hauora (health and wellbeing) in the later years of life, and we look forward to deepening this collaboration so we can all live longer, healthier lives.”