Title : COVID-19 vaccines for optimizing immunity in the upper respiratory tract

Abstract:

Rapid development and deployment of vaccines greatly reduced mortality and morbidity during the COVID-19 pandemic. The most widely used COVID-19 vaccines require intramuscular administration. SARS-CoV-2 initially infects the upper respiratory tract where the infection can be eliminated with little or no symptoms by an effective immune response. Failure to eliminate SARS-CoV-2 in the upper respiratory tract results in lower respiratory tract infections that can lead to severe disease and death.

Presently used intramuscularly administered COVID-19 vaccines are effective in reducing severe disease and mortality but are not entirely able to prevent asymptomatic and mild infections as well as person to person transmission of the virus. Individual and population differences also influence susceptibility to infection and the propensity to develop severe disease. I provide a perspective on the nature and the mode of delivery COVID-19 vaccines that can optimize protective immunity in the upper respiratory tract to reduce infections and virus transmission as well as severe disease.

Audience Take Away:

• Appreciate mucosal immunity and immunity to SARS-CoV-2
• Assist teaching of public health, immunology and virology
• Help develop research ideas to advance knowledge on vaccines
• Establish and promote collaborative research links in the field
• Improve knowledge of the COVID-19 and help develop measures to mitigate its effects

Biography:

Ranjan Ramasamy graduated from the University of Cambridge, UK and then obtained a PhD also from the University of Cambridge. He has since held academic appointments in the UK and abroad including Australia, Sri Lanka and the USA. He was the Chairman of the National Science Foundation of Sri Lanka, Professor of Life Sciences at the Institute of Fundamental Studies in Kandy in Sri Lanka, Professor of Biochemistry in the University of Jaffna in Jaffna Sri Lanka, Professor of Immunology in the University Brunei Darussalam Medical School and held institute appointments at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge in the UK & Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in La Jolla in the USA. He has more 250 publications in fields pertaining to Medical Sciences. He was on the Committee on Scientific Planning and Review of the International Council for Science, and the Board of Governors of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.