The way in which effective protection to combat infectious diseases is elicited is still not understood. Thus, studies of the fish immune responses to pathogens are necessary to help develop vaccines capable of conferring long-lasting protection, and is probably one of the most important factors for future vaccine development and success of intensive fish production in aquaculture.
My project will attempt to highlight the correlation of immunity in fish in response to pathogen or pathogen mimics after vaccination. It will focus on disease resistance to aid further fish vaccine development and screen for molecular adjuvants, (fish cytokines and accessory molecules) that improve disease resistance.
The planned work to be undertaken includes:
Which immune gene transcripts are up-regulated in response to vaccination and after exposure to pathogens or pathogen mimics, to obtain a possible panel of genes that correlate with disease resistance using existing fish vaccines.
Using monoclonal antibodies (eg IL-21, IL-22, and IFN-g) to look for markers at the protein level post-vaccination or challenge.
Developing a DNA vaccine for e.g. furunculosis, (anticipated to give partial protection against the disease), as a model to allow screening of host cytokines as molecular adjuvants.
To use the DNA vaccine and/or whole bacteria, to evaluate the use of cytokines as vaccine adjuvants.
