April 5th - Wei Luo, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Indiana University. From Germinal Center Signaling to A Universal Flu Vaccine.

As one of the most important weapons against infectious diseases, vaccines have saved countless lives since their first use in the late 18^th century. Antibodies produced by effector B cells upon vaccination play a critical role in mediating the protection. The past several decades of research have made a revolution in our understanding of B cell response to vaccination. Vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus were developed at an unprecedented speed to power our global fight against COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, we still face many challenges in vaccine development against many other deadly viruses, such as HIV and influenza virus. In this presentation, I will talk about how B cell respond to vaccination and pathogen infection. I will focus on germinal center which plays central role in generating high quality B cell memory, and discuss the current challenges in the field and the potential strategies targeting germinal center B cells to improve vaccine efficacy.