An invited speaker, Dr. Simon Jochems, gave a talk titled "Characterisation of nasal microbial dynamics and related host response in children", where he shared how the group uses a method called Nasosorption to study the acquisition and disappearance of pneumococcal bacteria in children. By doing this, they can study interactions among different pathogens and between pathogens and the host's nasal cells.
Danny de Vos delivered a presentation about his research, which involved administering pneumococcal vaccines to healthy volunteers and assessing immune memory directly in the lymph nodes. He found that lymph node B cells tend to respond to a less diverse repertoire of pneumococcal polysaccharides, in contrast to B cells found in the blood, suggesting limited capacity of the lymph node to respond to multiple antigens.
Dr. Dennis Hoving presented his findings regarding the cellular mechanisms behind age-associated differences in vaccine efficacy. He found that as individuals got older, vaccination induces fewer vaccine-specific B cells. This reduction was already apparent in middle-aged individuals, indicating a progressive decline in vaccine-induced immunity with increasing age.