In Episode 3 of the podcast series from the GTEC on T cells and vaccine efficacy, Helen Fletcher, Professor of Immunology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and Dr Satwik Kar, an immunologist from Oxford Immunotec, discuss how the long-term efficacy of vaccines can be monitored. 

Prof. Fletcher and Dr Kar give an overview of how vaccines provide us with lasting immunity, and the crucial role of memory T cells and B cells in long-term immune protection. They highlight the importance of long-term monitoring of vaccine efficacy, and how both clinical trials and real-world clinical practice can provide the necessary data. Prof. Fletcher and Dr Kar summarise the current evidence from SARS-CoV-2 vaccines for lasting protective immunity, and discuss the importance of standardised T cell testing in vaccine efficacy monitoring.

This podcast was developed by the Global T cell Expert Consortium (GTEC), an initiative set up to bring together experts in T cells, vaccines, immunology and public health worldwide, with the aim of becoming the leading voice in T cell research during and beyond the current COVID-19 pandemic. The GTEC will educate on T cells and vaccine development through the release of publicly available educational content, and foster collaborative research efforts to address the unmet needs and unanswered questions in T cell research and vaccinology. This initiative is sponsored by Oxford Immunotec.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a rapidly changing situation: the content of this podcast was correct at time of recording in February 2021.