Rate My Professor Andrew Highton

Dr. Andrew Highton is a Research Fellow in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Health Sciences Division, at the University of Otago. Originally from Dunedin, where he attended Kaikorai Valley College, Highton earned a Bachelor of Biomedical Science with Honours, majoring in infection and immunity, and a PhD from the University of Otago. His doctoral work from 2011 to 2015, supervised by Dr. Roslyn Kemp, centered on memory CD8 T cells. He developed a novel mouse model of colorectal cancer to evaluate vaccine formulations, such as chitosan hydrogel, for generating protective cytotoxic T cell responses against tumors. During this period, he garnered major awards including the Eli Lilly Award for best trainee oral presentation at the New Zealand Society for Immunology in 2014, first-equal poster prize at the Australasian Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics Development Meeting in 2014, highly commended poster at the Otago Medical School Postgraduate Research Forum in 2014, Otago Medical Research Society Prize at the Division of Health Sciences Annual Research Forum in 2012, and the Health Sciences Divisional Research Forum Poster Prize in 2012. In 2014, he secured the prestigious Nuffield Medical Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Nuffield Dominion Trust, valued at NZ$83,700 annually for at least two years, to conduct research at Oxford University under Professor Paul Klenerman on virus-specific memory T cells in chronic infections such as HIV and hepatitis C. Additional honors included travel scholarships from the Webster Centre for Infectious Diseases, New Zealand Society for Immunology, Gut Health Network, and others.

Returning to the University of Otago as a Research Fellow in the Kemp Lab, Highton's research focuses on immunology, encompassing natural killer cell metabolism and education, CD8 T cell memory maintenance, cancer immunotherapy, mucosal immunity, and interactions between immune cells, microbiota, and epithelium in inflammatory bowel disease. He developed an autologous colonic organoid-derived monolayer model incorporating patient-derived immune cells and commensal bacteria to study Crohn's disease pathogenesis, published in 2022. Currently, as Kia Niwha Leader Fellow, he leads a $191,177 project (2024-2026) developing mini-lungs from adult stem cells to model natural killer cell responses to respiratory viruses like SARS-CoV-2 and influenza. Key publications include "Elevation of CpG frequencies in influenza A genome attenuates pathogenicity but enhances host response to infection" (eLife, 2016), "Induction and maintenance of CX3CR1-intermediate peripheral memory CD8+ T cells by persistent viruses and vaccines" (Cell Reports, 2018), "Natural killer cell education is associated with a distinct glycolytic profile" (Frontiers in Immunology, 2018), "The role of natural killer cells in liver inflammation" (Seminars in Immunopathology, 2021), and "Chitosan hydrogel vaccine generates protective CD8 T cell memory against mouse melanoma" (Immunology and Cell Biology, 2015). His contributions advance vaccine design, immune cell function understanding, and disease modeling with implications for cancer, infections, and gut disorders.