WEHI Immunology Special Seminar hosted by Professor Joanna Groom

Professor Joanna Groom

Instructor in Professor Shane Crotty’s laboratory at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) in San Diego, California, USA 

Overcoming the Roadblocks to an HIV Vaccine

Davis Auditorium

Join via TEAMS

Including Q&A session

Dr Harry Sutton is an Instructor in Professor Shane Crotty’s laboratory at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) in San Diego, California. He completed his PhD at the John Curtin School of Medical Research in Canberra under Professor Ian Cockburn, using malaria as a model to study how B cells respond to vaccination.

At LJI, Dr Sutton’s work centers on strategies to improve B cell responses to HIV vaccines. As part of the Consortium for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Development, he has been instrumental in testing germline-targeting immunogens—specially designed to prime B cells with genetic features that predispose them to develop into broadly neutralizing antibody (bnAb) producers, a key goal in HIV vaccine research.

He has also led studies investigating slow-delivery vaccination strategies that enhance the magnitude and quality of antibody responses. This work has yielded key insights into the dynamics of humoral immune responses; notably, in a landmark Nature study, Dr Sutton and colleagues demonstrated that germinal centers can persist for at least six months after a single priming immunization in non-human primates. Most significantly, the study demonstrated that allowing germinal centers to mature longer before boosting can dramatically improve immune outcomes. Building on these discoveries, Dr Sutton’s research continues to explore how vaccine design can shape the quality and longevity of immune responses.

All welcome!