Rocky Lai, PhD
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My work focuses on understanding protective immunity towards tuberculosis (TB), with the long-term goal of applying this knowledge towards the testing and development of new and existing TB vaccines. In particular, I am interested in addressing how variation in the host genetic background affects vaccine efficacy. Currently, I work with Dr. Sam Behar on using genetically diverse Collaborative Cross (CC) mice as a vaccine testing platform. The CC mice are a genetic diverse mouse resource that can reproduce the genetic diversity observed in outbred groups like the human population, which makes it a superior vaccine testing platform over traditional models. My work within the department has established the CC mice as a promising platform for evaluating both clinical and experimental TB vaccines in the context of genetically diverse hosts, and I am currently leading an effort in testing several preclinical vaccine candidates in the CC mice. I have expertise in investigating key cellular populations such as T cells, dendritic cells, and macrophages in the mouse model, particularly using multi-parameter spectral flow cytometry, flow sorting and scRNASeq in a BSL3 environment. |