Through better understanding of how our immune system fights infection, we can develop more effective, longer-lasting ways to prevent, treat and cure a wide range of infectious diseases.
Our research is focused on understanding how immune cells respond to threats such as viruses, bacteria or parasites so we can identify new ways to boost the protectiveness of our immune system.
It’s the immune system’s job to recognise and remove any threat it encounters. However, many infectious or disease-causing organisms have developed clever strategies to bypass our immune system. In addition, the immune system can only respond to a threat it recognises, making it vulnerable to new infections.
Understanding how infectious agents influence, evade and modulate the human immune system to avoid detection and expulsion from the body is a key area of research at the Malaghan Institute.
Research highlights
COVID-19 vaccine development
1 September 2020
New study into Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to provide unique NZ data
10 June 2021
Malaghan vaccine used in development of novel malaria treatment
1 July 2020
Study finds a high-fibre diet can improve immune response to vaccines
18 November 2021
Preclinical study finds TB vaccine effective at preventing serious COVID-19 illness
25 January 2022
Associated research groups
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