Annapurna Vyakarnam

SJRI

Dr. Annapurna Vyakarnam is Adjunct Professor at the Division of Infectious Diseases, St. John’s Research Institute, India where she leads the Human Immunology Laboratory. She is also Professor of Microbial Immunology at King’s College London.  Dr. Vyakarnam holds a PhD in tumor immunology from Darwin College (Cambridge, UK). Her laboratory uses cellular, molecular, immunological, and functional genomic approaches to conduct an in-depth functional analysis of immunity to microbial infections using primary human clinical samples.

Her laboratory works on host pathogen interactions and adaptive immunity to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), HIV-tuberculosis (TB) coinfection, COVID-19 and Influenza virus infection as well as elucidating immune responses to both old and emergent vaccines. Specifically, her laboratory has probed immunity to Bacillus Calmette Guerin (BCG) vaccination in combating tuberculosis; COVID-19 vaccines in combating COVID-19 and Flu vaccines in combating Influenza. Her group works on (a) dissecting what constitutes a protective versus a pathogenic CD4 T cell immune response, (b) understanding emerging concept of innate trained immunity in regulating adaptive immune responses (c) Understanding the nature of innate and adaptive immune changes in acute COVID19 infection vs Long COVID in context of cardiovascular disease risk and (d) systems immune profiling studies to monitor/understand vaccine-induced immune responses, including responses to BCG, next generation FLU vaccines and COVID19 vaccines with her laboratory setting up bespoke protocols to track vaccine responses as part of COVID19 human immune monitoring in India. The overall goal of her team is to improve understanding of disease process and use this understanding to promote vaccine discovery and disease monitoring, achieved through national/international collaborative research.