development, licensure and deployment of candidate iNTS vaccines is slow and costly.

The Protection Against iNTS (PAINTS) project is an international, multidisciplinary vaccinology consortium funded by the Wellcome Trust and led by the University of Edinburgh, established to derive an evidence-based, functionally validated and internationally standardised CoP for iNTS disease. The consortium includes 5 UK academic partners as well as 3 LMIC partners in Malawi and DR Congo, and an industrial global health partner (GSK Vaccines for Global Health). The Work Package in which this studentship is embedded characterises endemic paediatric populations with natural exposure to NTS at two African field sites; in Malawi (Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Programme) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (Institut National pour la Recherche Biomedicale), linking age-stratified serological immunity to detailed epidemiological metadata.

This project is focused on the mathematical modelling, statistical analysis and integration of data generated across both field sites. The central premise is that invasive disease declines after the first year of life despite continued enteric exposure, implying that protection is driven by naturally acquired O-antigen IgG, rather than by waning exposure. By jointly modelling age-stratified antibody titres, the force of enteric exposure (faecal NTS carriage) and the established age-specific incidence of invasive disease, the protective effect of antibody can be separated from changing exposure and a putative antibody threshold of protection derived.

The successful candidate will build and fit these models, integrate immunological and epidemiological datasets from Malawi and DRC, and quantify how risk factors such as malaria, anaemia and malnutrition modify the immune response and the protective threshold across settings. This work will define the “protective immunity gap” that a vaccine must fill in different epidemiological contexts and generate policy-relevant evidence to accelerate iNTS vaccine licensure and deployment.

development, licensure and deployment of candidate iNTS vaccines is slow and costly.

The Protection Against iNTS (PAINTS) project is an international, multidisciplinary vaccinology consortium funded by the Wellcome Trust and led by the University of Edinburgh, established to derive an evidence-based, functionally validated and internationally standardised CoP for iNTS disease. The consortium includes 5 UK academic partners as well as 3 LMIC partners in Malawi and DR Congo, and an industrial global health partner (GSK Vaccines for Global Health). The Work Package in which this studentship is embedded characterises endemic paediatric populations with natural exposure to NTS at two African field sites; in Malawi (Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Programme) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (Institut National pour la Recherche Biomedicale), linking age-stratified serological immunity to detailed epidemiological metadata.

This project is focused on the mathematical modelling, statistical analysis and integration of data generated across both field sites. The central premise is that invasive disease declines after the first year of life despite continued enteric exposure, implying that protection is driven by naturally acquired O-antigen IgG, rather than by waning exposure. By jointly modelling age-stratified antibody titres, the force of enteric exposure (faecal NTS carriage) and the established age-specific incidence of invasive disease, the protective effect of antibody can be separated from changing exposure and a putative antibody threshold of protection derived.

The successful candidate will build and fit these models, integrate immunological and epidemiological datasets from Malawi and DRC, and quantify how risk factors such as malaria, anaemia and malnutrition modify the immune response and the protective threshold across settings. This work will define the “protective immunity gap” that a vaccine must fill in different epidemiological contexts and generate policy-relevant evidence to accelerate iNTS vaccine licensure and deployment.