Email: t.desilva@sheffield.ac.uk

Research profile and key clinical specialties

Our group focuses on infection- and vaccine-induced antiviral immune responses to influenza and SARS-CoV-2 in a range of clinical cohorts including children and immunosuppressed groups such as haematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients.

Other interests include the molecular epidemiology of respiratory viruses and viral-bacterial interactions within hospital and community settings, both in the UK and West Africa.

While infectious diseases and microbiology/virology are key specialties, investigating antiviral immunity to respiratory viruses in different cohorts cuts across many clinical specialties.

Two key publications

• Angyal A, Longet S, Moore SC, Payne RP, Harding A, Tipton T, Rongkard P, Ali M, Hering LM, Meardon N, Austin J, Brown R, Skelly D, Gillson N, Dobson SL, Cross A, Sandhar G, Kilby JA, Tyerman JK, Nicols AR, Spegarova JS, Mehta H, Hornsby H, Whitham R, Conlon CP, Jeffrey K, Goulder PG, Frater J, Dold C, Pace M, Ogbe A, Brown H, Ansari MA, Adland E, Brown A, Chand M, Shields A, Matthews PC, Hopkins S, Hall V, James W, Rowland-Jones S, Klenerman P, Dunachie S, Richter A*, Duncan CJA*, Barnes E*, Carroll M*, Lurtle T* & de Silva TI* on behalf of the PITCH consortium (*joint senior author). T-cell and antibody responses to the first BNT162b2 vaccine dose in previously SARS-CoV-2-infected and infection-naïve UK healthcare workers: a multicentre, prospective, observational cohort study. Lancet Microbe. In Press.
• Lindsey BB, Jagne YJ, Armitage EP, Singanayagam A, Sallah HJ, Drammeh S, Senghore E, Mohammed NI, Jeffries D, Hoschler K, Tregoning J, Meijer A, Clarke E, Dong T, Barclay W, Kampmann B & de Silva TI. The impact of an updated pandemic H1N1 strain on shedding and immunogenicity to Russian-backbone live attenuated influenza vaccine among children in The Gambia: an open-label, observational, phase 4 study. Lancet Respir Med 2019, 7(8): 665-676. doi: 10.1016/S2213-2600(19)30086-4.

Possible PhD projects

• The role of mucosal immunity in the acquisition and transmission of respiratory viruses.
• Immunophenotyping of vaccine antigen-specific T-cells following haematopoietic stem cell transplant.

More information

I am a visiting scientist in the Vaccines and Immunity Theme at the MRC Unit The Gambia at LSHTM and am co-supervising several Wellcome Trust Clinical PhD fellows based between The Gambia and UK.

Keywords: Infection, vaccine, antiviral, influenza, Sars, COVID, immunosuppressed, epidemiology, respiratory, viruses, bacterial, Thushan, de Silva, Sheffield

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