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Professor Ed Lavelle

Prof/ Course Co-Ordinator (Biochemistry)
      
Profile Photo

Professor Ed Lavelle

Prof/ Course Co-Ordinator (Biochemistry)

 lavellee@tcd.ie

 3531896 2488


I am an Immunologist and was Head of the School of Biochemistry and Immunology from 2017-2020. I have engaged at teaching at many levels in Universities in Ireland and the U.K. In particular, since October 2004 I have worked as a lecturer, senior lecturer and Professor in Immunology in the School of Biochemistry and Immunology at Trinity College Dublin. In addition to delivering lectures and tutorials to junior and senior sophister students, I have also lectured to students enrolled on the MSc courses in Molecular Medicine, Immunology and Translational Oncology. I was also previously engaged in lecturing at TCD and at the University of Nottingham (England). I have supervised student projects from diploma to Masters degree level and have supervised 21 PhD students to completion. I have was President of the Irish Society for Immunology from 2012-2020, organised a number of National and International conferences, chaired sessions on Immunology and vaccines for a number of national and international conferences and acted as a peer reviewer for leading Immunology journals and for funding bodies in both the EU and the USA. Since acquiring my PhD in 1994, my research has been principally in the fields of Immunology and vaccine adjuvant development. The projects I have worked on have included the piscine mucosal immune system, the use of biodegradable micro and nanoparticles as vaccine adjuvants and the evaluation of plant lectins as bioadhesives, immunogens and immunomodulators. During this time I acquired broad expertise that is applicable to the range of projects I am now engaged in and will pursue in the future. In recent years my principal research interest has been the elucidation of the mechanism of action of adjuvants and immunomodulators. In particular I have focused on on particulate vaccine adjuvants including biodegradable microparticles, alum and the cationic polysaccharide chitosan. This work includes basic research into the mechanism by which these systems activate the immune system and more applied work on the optimisation of these adjuvants for use in injectable and mucosal vaccines. The fundamental adjuvant research includes studies into the cell signalling pathways induced by these molecules which will facilitate a better understanding of their mode(s) of action. In addition, over the past number of years my team have worked closely with our collaborators within AMBER to address the potential of novel biomaterials to drive beneficial immune responses underpinning tissue regeneration. Across all of our activities we depend on building and sustaining close collaborations with national and international academic and industrial collaborators.
  ADENYLYL-CYCLASE ACTIVITY   ADJUVANTS   cAMP   Cell Death   CREB   IL-10   Immune System   Immunity   Immunology, Immunotherapy   Immunophysiology   Inflammation   LECTIN-BINDING   LECTINS   Life Sciences   Nanotechnology   NF-kappaB   Signal Transduction   Signal Transduction (Sensory/Cellular)   SIGNAL-TRANSDUCTION   SIGNAL-TRANSDUCTION PATHWAYS   Toll-Like Receptors   VACCINE   VACCINE EFFICACY   Vaccines
Project Title
 Tailored design of nanoparticulate adjuvants to enhance vaccine induced cellular immunity
From
1-10-2020
To
30-9-2025
Summary
Funding Agency
Science Foundation Ireland
Programme
Frontiers of the Future
Project Type
Frontiers of the Future Award
Project Title
 Adjuvants targeting the NLRP3 inflammasome and STING for improved cancer immunotherapy.
From
1-10-2019
To
30-9-2-23
Summary
Funding Agency
Irish Research council
Programme
Postdraduate award
Project Type
Basic research
Person Months
48
Project Title
 Potential of oral cyclosporine to treat extra-intestinal diseases
From
1-5-2019
To
30-9-2020
Summary
Funding Agency
Sublimity Therapeutics
Project Type
Applied research, industrial collaboration
Person Months
16
Project Title
 Sugar coating immunity for enhancement of biomaterials.
From
1-1-2019
To
31-10-2020
Summary
18/TIDA/6087.
Funding Agency
Science Foundation Ireland
Programme
TIDA
Person Months
12
Project Title
 Irish Society for Immunology meeting 2018.
From
1-6-2018
To
31-12-2018
Summary
Proposal ID: 18/CW/5605.
Funding Agency
Science Foundation Ireland (SFI)
Programme
conference and workshops programme award
Project Type
Conference award

Page 1 of 9
Details Date
Chair of the Steering committee for the Centre for Global Vaccine Research, University of Liverpool, U.K. (2017-2020).
Main organiser of 9 Immunology meetings including the Irish Society for Immunology meetings (2013-2020; average attendance 160-200 participants) and the European Mucosal Immunology Group (EMIG) 2012 meeting (300 participants), held in Dublin.
Member of the advisory board for the EU funded ITN, PHA-ST-TRAIN-VAC between the University of Strathclyde and GSK Vaccines (2017-2019).
National representative and member of the core group of the COST Action ENOVA (European Network of Vaccine adjuvants) 2018-2022.
Member of the Scientific Advisory Panel for 13 international conferences since 2006.
Won the bid to host the 2024 European Congress of Immunology in Dublin in 2024. I will lead the committee in planning for this meeting for the coming 5 years.
Member of the Editorial Board of Biochemical Pharmacology and Frontiers in Immunology
Language Skill Reading Skill Writing Skill Speaking
English Fluent Fluent Fluent
French Medium Medium Medium
Irish Medium Medium Medium
Spanish Basic Basic Basic
Details Date From Date To
Irish Society for Immunology (President 2008-2020) 2005 (member) 2022
Committee member of the Vaccine committee for the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS). 2018 2022
European Federation of Immunology Societies 2005 2022
International Society of Vaccines 2019 2022
Society for Mucosal Immunology 2006 2022
The American Association of Immunologists 2018 2022
European Adjuvant Advisory Group 2007 2008
Kunkemoeller, Britta and Prendeville, Hannah and McIntyre, Claire and Temesgen, Ayantu and Loftus, RÏ isín M. and Yao, Conghui and Dyck, Lydia and Sinclair, Linda V. and Rollings, Christina and Douglas, Aaron and Pernes, Gerard and Mitchelson, Kathleen A. J. and Harmon, Cathal and Raverdeau, Mathilde and Ward, Ross and Kane, Harry and Kline, Jaclyn and O†Brien, Katie L. and Brennan, Martin and Smith, Frances and Stevens, Brenneth and Roche, Helen M. and Lavelle, Ed C. and Finlay, David K. and Cantrell, Doreen A. and Chouchani, Edward T. and Kaech, Susan and Mills, Evanna L. and Haigis, Marcia and Lynch, Lydia, The source of dietary fat influences anti-tumour immunity in obese mice, Nature Metabolism, 2025, Notes: [Cited by: 0], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Zotta, Alessia and Toller-Kawahisa, Juliana and Palsson-McDermott, Eva M. and O'Carroll, Shane M. and Henry, Ã"rlaith C. and Day, Emily A. and McGettrick, Anne F. and Ward, Ross W. and Ryan, Dylan G. and Watson, Mark A. and Brand, Martin D. and Runtsch, Marah C. and Maitz, Kathrin and Lueger, Anna and Kargl, Julia and Miljkovic, Jan L. and Lavelle, Ed C. and O'Neill, Luke A.J., Mitochondrial respiratory complex III sustains IL-10 production in activated macrophages and promotes tumor-mediated immune evasion, Science Advances , 11, (4), 2025, Notes: [Cited by: 5; All Open Access, Gold Open Access], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Ed C. Lavelle, Craig P. McEntee, Vaccine adjuvants: Tailoring innate recognition to send the right message, Immunity, 57, (4), 2024, p772-789 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Jorge Huete"Carrasco, Roisin I. Lynch, Ross W. Ward, Ed C. Lavelle, Rational design of polymer"based particulate vaccine adjuvants, European Journal of Immunology, 54, (2), 2024, Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Joanna L. Turley, Ross W. Ward, Jorge Huete-Carrasco, Natalia Muñoz-Wolf, Kate Roche, Lei Jin, Andrew Bowie, Mats Andersson, Ed Lavelle, Intratumoral delivery of the chitin-derived C100 adjuvant promotes robust STING, IFNAR, and CD8+ T cell-dependent anti-tumor immunity, Cell Reports Medicine, 5, (5), 2024, p101560 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Lavelle, E.C. and Genescà, M., Editorial overview: The march of mucosal vaccines, Current Opinion in Immunology, 86, (102408), 2024, Notes: [cited By 0], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Meraz, Ismail M. and Hearnden, Claire H. and Liu, Xuewu and Yang, Marie and Williams, Laura and Savage, David J. and Gu, Jianhua and Rhudy, Jessica R. and Yokoi, Kenji and Lavelle, Ed C. and Serda, Rita E., Erratum: Correction: Multivalent Presentation of MPL by Porous Silicon Microparticles Favors T Helper 1 Polarization Enhancing the Anti-Tumor Efficacy of Doxorubicin Nanoliposomes (PloS one (2014) 9 4 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0094703), PloS one, 19, (11), 2024, pe0314577 , Notes: [Cited by: 0; All Open Access, Gold Open Access], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Muñoz-Wolf, N. and Ward, R.W. and Hearnden, C.H. and Sharp, F.A. and Geoghegan, J. and O'Grady, K. and McEntee, C.P. and Shanahan, K.A. and Guy, C. and Bowie, A.G. and Campbell, M. and Roces, C.B. and Anderluzzi, G. and Webb, C. and Perrie, Y. and Creagh, E. and Lavelle, E.C., Non-canonical inflammasome activation mediates the adjuvanticity of nanoparticles, Cell Reports Medicine, 4, (1), 2023, Notes: [cited By 1], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Huete-Carrasco J, Lavelle EC., Immunostimulatory nanoparticles go viral., Nature materials, 22, (3), 2023, p273-275 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Oleszycka E, O'Brien EC, Freeley M, Lavelle EC, Long A., Bile acids induce IL-1" and drive NLRP3 inflammasome-independent production of IL-1ß in murine dendritic cells., Frontiers in immunology, 14, 2023, p1285357 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
  

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Award Date
Elected a Member of the Royal Irish Academy (MRIA) 2021
Fellow of Trinity College Dublin (FTCD) 2012
Elected President of the Irish Society for Immunology 2012
Elected President of the European Congress of Immunology 2024 (ECI2024) 2021
Made an ambassador of the Dublin Convention Centre 2018
I am an internationally recognised leader in the field of vaccine adjuvants with a record of publishing high impact papers, attracting competitive research funding, generating and protecting intellectual property, engaging industrial partners and the public, organising conferences and adopting advisory roles. Adjuvants are essential components of vaccines that can profoundly enhance protective immune responses and specifically can affect the magnitude and type of vaccine -induced innate and adaptive immunity. My research is principally focused on how vaccine adjuvants enhance protective immune responses against infection and cancer. My group has made key discoveries that enhance our understanding of how the physicochemical properties of adjuvants influence the induction of innate and adaptive immunity. We have provided major new insights into how adjuvants engage innate cellular sensing pathways, particularly DNA sensing pathways and inflammasomes, pursuing the specific roles of interferons and cytokines of the IL-1 family in adjuvanticity. We have developed novel particulate vaccine adjuvants (IP filed, new start up in cancer vaccines launched - AilseVax). We have worked on developing an effective oral delivery system that has significant potential for vaccines against ETEC, cholera and Helicobacter pylori. The expertise we have developed in assessing particulate adjuvant regulation of immune responses also has relevance in the field of biomaterial interaction with the immune system. As a result, I have a substantial research programme in this area as part of the AMBER centre. Being a CRANN PI and an AMBER funded investigator has led to close connections with colleagues in Bioengineering, Chemistry and Physics and this cross-disciplinary dimension places my research in a unique position within Ireland. This allows me to pursue how particulate materials can regulate immune responses and how fundamental understanding of the underlying processes can help us to rationally design novel vaccine adjuvant systems but also enhanced biomaterials. My work at Trinity has been transformational over the past 17 years in establishing that nonmicrobial particulate adjuvants can be designed to activate specific innate sensing and signalling pathways and that this can be harnessed to induce and direct adaptive immune responses. This has led to publications in the leading journals in the field, many since my last promotion in 2015. The impact of my work can be seen in invitations to speak at the leading meetings in the field (111 invited conference talks and seminars since 2004), to serve on scientific advisory boards for conferences (15), to serve as chair on the advisory board of a vaccine centre in the U.K., to act as a consultant for leading (Merck, GSK, HIPRA) vaccine companies, to write reviews, commentaries and editorials and to serve as a panel member for prestigious grant agencies (e.g. Gates Foundation, German Centres of Excellence Programme). Being recognised as an authority in vaccine adjuvant research together with the global prominence of this field makes it likely that my influence will grow, generating many new research opportunities over the coming years.