NIVI Research Center welcomes Professor Søren Buus

Søren Buus is one of the pioneers in the exploration and understanding of MHC molecules and their significance in activating the immune system's T-cells when the body is exposed to threats.

He has been doing research into MHC-molecules for 40 years and has been behind groundbreaking new knowledge and biochemical evidence of how MHC-molecules bind peptides, which are fragments of proteins from, for example, viruses and bacteria, and present them to T-cells. This process is crucial for the activation of T-cells and the subsequent immune response, including the formation of antibodies by B-cells against these foreign threats.

At NIVI Research Center he will continue this work, exploring down to the single-cell level how an antigen presenting cell reacts when it has been recognized by a T-cell. He will try to identify a genetic signature of this reaction with the aim of developing new diagnostic methods to test if a vaccine candidate is inducing the necessary immune response. In other words: if the vaccine works and activates the T-cells.

The aim of the Novo Nordisk Foundation Initiative for Vaccines and Immunity (NIVI) is to revolutionize and accelerate vaccine development in Denmark by bridging the gap between academic research and industry innovation. NIVI conducts basic and translational research with an emphasis on developing new vaccines targeting respiratory-route pathogens.

Søren Buus will share his time between NIVI Research Center og Department of Immunology and Microbiology, University of Copenhagen (ISIM), where the center is anchored. He is looking forward to the new possibilities NIVI represents:

” It is a privilege to help promote the development of new and effective vaccines. Translating the basic knowledge of how the major determinant of immunogenicity, the MHC, works into new approaches to vaccine development requires significant investments. So, the collaboration between different kinds of expertise that is possible within NIVI is an opportunity to do something that changes the way we ensure immunological protection by vaccination”, he says.