Ashley Priddey

With a background in biochemistry and antibody immunology, my focus is on understanding the steps that lead to the generation of effective humoral responses in order to protect us from harm during infection and disease.

In response to the recognition of foreign antigens, activated B cells within follicles of secondary lymphoid organs go through rounds of somatic hypermutation, clonal expansion and selection, to produce antibodies with a high specificity (affinity) for the recognised antigen, a process known as the germinal centre reaction. The fate of these 'affinity-matured' B cells is then to either become antibody-secreting plasma cells to help clear ongoing infection, or to enter the memory compartment to provide protection against any subsequent exposure.

My current research aims to provide deeper comprehension of the events that govern the inter-zonal cycling of B cells within the germinal centre to ultimately produce these affinity-matured, clonally diverse antibody responses, information that would be beneficial for drug design, vaccine development and understanding disease progression.

Prior to my post in Oxford, I completed my PhD and first Postdoc at the University of Cambridge, where I worked under Dr. Vasilis Kosmoliaptsis to develop novel methods of antibody characterisation to improve clinical immunological risk assessment in the context of solid organ transplantation.