Prof Elma Tchilian

Elma obtained her PhD at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund before working as a postdoctoral fellow in Birmingham, Senior Research Scientist at the Edward Jenner Institute and Principal Investigator at Oxford University. Elma identified the leucocyte common antigen (CD45) as a cause of severe combined immunodeficiency in man and the role of CD45 variants in disease. In Oxford she demonstrated the importance of local immunity in vaccine induced protection against tuberculosis.

Elma joined The Pirbright Institute in 2014 and is now head of Mucosal Immunology. She has established a powerful pig influenza model to study immunity to and transmission of influenza viruses and test efficacy of vaccines and therapeutics. Elma’s group identified special pig immune cells that are present in tissues (tissue resident memory cells) and generated the first pig influenza monoclonal antibodies, showing that they recognise identical parts of the virus to human antibodies. This data demonstrated the utility of the pig as a biomedical model for human disease. The overarching aim of Elma’s research is to understand how best to harness mucosal immunity in protection against influenza and other respiratory pathogens.

The ongoing aims of Elma’s group are:

• To test how best to deliver prophylactic and therapeutic monoclonal antibodies and to uncover mechanisms underlying their ability to protect against disease.
• To determine the importance of local immunity, including lung tissue resident memory T cells, in respiratory infections and develop improved strategies to induce these protective mechanisms.
• To understand transmission dynamics of swine influenza and identify means of preventing transmission.