When Dr Nicholas Andronicos was a child, he says there was nothing better than a good puzzle.
This passion for problem solving soon led him down the path of immunology, which has seen him become an Associate Professor in Biochemistry and Immunology at UNE where he creates oral vaccines to protect livestock from parasites.
To celebrate Day of Immunology this Friday 29 April, we had a chat to him about his research, the importance of vaccines, and what he’d say to someone considering a career in immunology.
Can you tell us about your work?
I am working at the pointy end of immunology. My work involves making oral vaccines to protect livestock from scour worms, which decimates the sheep industry, a major income earner for Australia. The white blood cells of the immune system are very good at gobbling up and destroying pathogens that are smaller than themselves, like bacteria and virus’. The immune system is also very good at making antibodies against these same small pathogens. However, parasitic worms are 100-fold larger than the white blood cell defenders of the immune system. Thus, the white blood cells cannot gobble up these parasites to destroy them. Essentially, the invading parasite is an armoured tank and the white blood cells are soldiers on the battlefield (the gut of a sheep). This makes my job of building a protective vaccine against parasites particularly challenging.
What sparked your interest in this field?
As a kid I loved puzzles and have always enjoyed a challenge. Making vaccines is a puzzle. First, we need to create some technology to mass produce the targets (or antigens) on the parasitic worms for the white blood cells to recognise. Then we have to find the right protein targets on the worm that will provide protection for the sheep when the vaccine-induced antibodies bind the worm targets. Then we are ready to build our experimental vaccines for testing.
What role do vaccines play?
Vaccines are essential to prevent disease caused by pathogens and they reduce our reliance on limited stocks of antibiotics, anti-viral and anti-fungal medicines. However, as we have found in recent times with the COVID-19 pandemic, pathogens change, or evolve, over time. Vaccines are designed to generate an antibody response that protect us against pathogens like COVID. These vaccine-induced antibodies act as a selective pressure in the corona virus’ environment (your body), which drives the random mutation of the corona virus to remove the viral targets of the vaccines. This is Darwinian selection, or 'the survival of the fittest' in action. Thus, we have a molecular arms race occurring. Because the viral targets are changed, nullifying the vaccine due the selective pressure of the vaccine-induced antibodies in the virus’ environment, we need to constantly make new versions of the vaccine to combat these changing viral mutations driven by our vaccines. Hence, vaccine modification is vital for successful human and veterinary medicine.
What would you say to someone considering entering the Immunology field?
Immunology is fascinating. If you like solving puzzles you should consider a career in immunology. The cells in our bodies are an ecosystem. The interaction of our cells gives us form and function and allow us to interact with our planet. However, we are not only made up of our own cells. Living alongside our cells are trillions of microbes that use us for food and shelter. We also have invaders, pathogens such as virus’ and parasitic worms that cause disease in our bodies. A huge part of immunology (Host-Pathogen Interactions) is devoted to studying these interactions between us and foreign organisms, both good and bad, within our bodies. The dynamics of these interactions is constantly evolving. Therefore, if you are inquisitive about the world around you and within you, why not dive into the microcosm that is the human body and explore its immunological ecosystem?
