Caolann Brady

Immunologist

I was very keen to pursue a career as a scientist, as my dad brought me to the Young Scientist and Technology exhibition every year as a child. This was a nationwide science fair and competition in Ireland that was open to the public and involved students and scientists from across the country displaying and discussing their research. I found it fascinating, and I thoroughly enjoyed the buzz and excitement. Nothing would do for me, but to become a scientist myself.  I later participated with a project that won another national science fair called SciFest, and I went on to represent Ireland in Los Angeles at the International Science and Engineering Fair, winning second prize and an asteroid in my name from MIT.

I studied Molecular Medicine at Trinity College Dublin and I am now a final year DPhil student in Professor Miles Carroll’s lab at the Pandemic Sciences Institute and Centre for Human Genetics in the University of Oxford.

My research interests include understanding the divergence of the immune response in different individuals following infection and/or immunisation with different vaccine platforms. In this vein, my PhD project utilises samples from preclinical SARS-CoV-2 vaccine trials to identify the specific immune response following vaccination that is providing us with protection against COVID-19. In future, I hope to apply the skills and insights from my PhD to study female immunology – an area that has been understudied and misunderstood in biology research for centuries.