Connor Laboratory

Creating more effective, adaptable and safe vaccines for better health.

The Connor Lab combines cutting-edge immunology, molecular biology and synthetic biology to address the most pressing challenges in immunisation and infectious disease. The team takes a multidisciplinary approach, integrating insights into immune cell development and activation, antigen presentation and immune signalling with innovative vaccine delivery platforms such as mRNA technology.

The Connor Lab's goal is to advance vaccines that provide long-term protection while addressing critical gaps in current vaccination strategies, such as understanding mucosal immunity for specialised mucosal vaccines and developing personalised therapies for immunocompromised populations.

Research areas

Infectious Disease
Vaccine design
Harnessing unconventional T-cells for mucosal vaccines and therapeutics
Designing novel circular RNA to improve mRNA vaccine efficacy
Developing a universal influenza vaccine through antigen engineering
Developing mRNA vaccine strategies for vulnerable individuals

Research collaborations

Prof Gavin Painter, Dr Benji Compton, A.Prof Bridget Stocker, Prof Ian Hermans – Synthetic ligands and unconventional T cell activation
Prof Wayne Patrick, Dr Joanna Hicks, Dr Adele Williamson, Dr William Kelton – RNA biology, structural biology, and bioengineering for circular RNA vaccines
Dr Kuang-Chih Hsiao, Prof James Ussher, Prof Ian Hermans, Dr Michelle Linterman, Dr Isabelle Montgomerie, Advancing RNA vaccine technology for vulnerable populations.