Broad Betacoronavirus Immunity: How Understanding T Cells Could Prevent Future Pandemics
Join this webinar to explore how conserved T-cell responses across betacoronaviruses are informing strategies for broader immune protection.
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for vaccines that address new and evolving viral threats. Among these, betacoronaviruses, including severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), and SARS-CoV-2, pose significant pandemic risks due to their high genetic variability and ability to cross the species barrier from animals to humans.
T-cell-mediated immunity has demonstrated robust cross-reactivity and durability. This finding suggests that T cells have the potential to deliver broad immune protection across a family of related viruses, making them a promising focus for future vaccine strategies.
In this webinar, Alba Grifoni will present her research titled Highly conserved betacoronavirus sequences are broadly recognized by human T cells, recently published in Cell. Learn how insights into T-cell responses are guiding multi-antigen vaccine strategies to protect against a broad range of betacoronaviruses, from COVID-19 to the common cold.
Wednesday
9:00 AM PST
12:00 PM EST
5:00 PM BST
6:00 PM CET
You will learn:
- How T-cell activation assays assess the response to regions of the viral proteome
- Why certain T-cell epitopes are preserved between different betacoronaviruses
- Why multi-antigen vaccines hold promise for improved and cross-reactive immunity
- How these insights could lead to vaccines that confer resistance to a broad range of betacoronaviruses
Speaker
Alba Grifoni
Research Assistant Professor
La Jolla Institute for Immunology, CA, USA
Dr. Alba Grifoni is a Research Assistant Professor at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI), where she leads cutting-edge research in human viral immunology and T-cell responses at the Center for Vaccine Innovation.
Dr. Grifoni has been recognized as a Clarivate Highly Cited Scientist since 2022, a distinction that underscores her exceptional global influence. Her scholarly impact is profound, evidenced by her profile with an H-Index of 55 and more than 27,249 citations, establishing her as a foremost authority in the field.
Her career has been defined by breakthrough contributions to pandemic preparedness. In 2025, she co-authored a seminal paper in the journal Cell titled "Highly conserved betacoronavirus sequences are broadly recognized by human T cells", which is shaping the direction of multi-antigen vaccine strategies. This follows her foundational work on SARS-CoV-2, including publications in Cell and Science that were cited in congressional hearings and were critical to understanding the immune response to COVID-19.
Since 2020, Dr. Grifoni has directed her lab at LJI, where she leads NIH- and CEPI-funded projects focused on pan-coronavirus vaccine design and the study of T-cell immunity to pathogens like mpox and dengue. She holds a PhD in Immunology from the University of Rome Tor Vergata and has been recognized with multiple honors, including the ISSNAF/Embassy of Italy Award and the Boulle-SEI International Award.
