Dr Carolien Van de Sandt recognised for viral immunology work

Dr Carolien van de Sandt, ARC-DECRA Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity (Doherty Institute), has recently received the Australia and New Zealand Society for Immunology (ASI) Gordon Ada Career Advancement Award, and the European Scientific working group on Influenza and other Respiratory Viruses (ESWI) Claude Hannoun Best Body of Work Prize, in acknowledgement of the importance of her work in the field of viral immunology.

Dr van de Sandt's research focuses on different aspects of influenza infections and host immunity with the aim to decode the evolution of influenza virus-specific T-cell immunity across the human lifespan. Throughout her early career, she made significant contributions to understanding virus-specific immune responses and their role in protection from severe disease. She contributed to landmark studies including the world’s first publication of the SARS-CoV-2-specific immune response in Nature Medicine, and her study on SARS-CoV-2 specific immunity in children published in Immunity.

ASI’s Gordon Ada Career Advancement Award recognises and seeks to advance the research of mid-career researchers by providing them the opportunity to attend an international conference combined with visiting overseas laboratories to establish new collaborations. The Claude Hannoun Best Body of Work Prize, awarded every three years to young scientists by ESWI, was given to Dr van de Sandt for “her substantial and impressive accomplishments to date in the field of understanding the dynamics of acute respiratory viruses”.