Top Jabs - Improving vaccination responses in older adults

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Older adults are more likely to get infections than young people, which is why the NHS vaccinates against the ?flu and pneumonia because of immune system ageing. Unfortunately, as people age, their body?s immune system works less well, meaning that responses to vaccination are less able to protect against illness. It is important to better understand why older people have poorer vaccine responses and to improve these. We plan to research this in older animals and humans. We will look at the processes involved in making high quality antibodies in mice, and test three ways of improving the vaccination response in mice and humans ? adding to vaccine components; improving people?s sensitivity to insulin; or simply changing the time of day when vaccines are given.