Conference report: airway mucosal sampling and immune analysis

Respiratory pathogens cause substantial global morbidity, mortality, and pandemic risk. While parenteral vaccines can effectively reduce severe disease for some respiratory infections, they are often less effective at preventing infection and onward transmission. Vaccines delivered directly to the airways have the potential to induce protective mucosal immunity at the site of pathogen entry. However, progress in mucosal vaccine development has been constrained by limited understanding of airway immune mechanisms, the technical challenges of sampling respiratory tissues, and the lack of standardised, validated immunological assays capable of defining mucosal correlates of protection. To address these challenges, the Novo Nordisk Foundation and Wellcome Trust convened a workshop on airway mucosal sampling and immunological assays, bringing together researchers, clinicians, funders, and representatives from major research consortia. Participants reviewed approaches to sampling the upper and lower respiratory tract, assay technologies, and regulatory considerations for integrating mucosal endpoints into vaccine development. Discussions highlighted major barriers including variability in sampling techniques, low and inconsistent cell yields, limited assay standardisation, and insufficient cross-study comparability. The workshop produced a set of recommendations in four priority areas (i.e., Collaboration, Communication, Consistency and Conduct of research) to share knowledge, accelerate standardisation and validation, and generate evidence supporting mucosal vaccine development. Together, these advances will help strengthen the scientific and regulatory foundations needed to realize the full potential of airway-delivered vaccines for the prevention of respiratory diseases.

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Publication Details

Journal
Vaccine
Published
2026-07-17
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2026.128944
Primary Topic
Asthma and respiratory diseases
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Conference report: airway mucosal sampling and immune analysis

Charlotte Thålin, Bonnie Bender, Elisa Nemes, Shane Crotty et al.
Vaccine
Asthma and respiratory diseases
article

Conference report: airway mucosal sampling and immune analysis

Charlotte Thålin, Bonnie Bender, Elisa Nemes, Shane Crotty, Stephen Taylor, Sophie L. Higham, Keertan Dheda, Morten Rühwald, Christine Dahlke, Hanne Vibeke Marquart, Helen McShane, Jill Gilmour, Tian Yun Wang, Deborah King, Jose Ordovas-Montanes, Henrik Kløverpris, Simon P. Jochems, Kondwani Jambo, Cecilia S. Lindestam Arlehamn, Florian Krammer, Joshua Rosenheim, Sarah Fortune, Kevin L. Schully, Hocine W. Mankouri, Helene B. Juel, Marianne Holm, Rasmus Mortensen, Jens U.S. Jensen, Chris Chiu, Paul C. Roberts, Mark Boaz, Ryan S. Thwaites
article en

Abstract

Respiratory pathogens cause substantial global morbidity, mortality, and pandemic risk. While parenteral vaccines can effectively reduce severe disease for some respiratory infections, they are often less effective at preventing infection and onward transmission. Vaccines delivered directly to the airways have the potential to induce protective mucosal immunity at the site of pathogen entry. However, progress in mucosal vaccine development has been constrained by limited understanding of airway immune mechanisms, the technical challenges of sampling respiratory tissues, and the lack of standardised, validated immunological assays capable of defining mucosal correlates of protection. To address these challenges, the Novo Nordisk Foundation and Wellcome Trust convened a workshop on airway mucosal sampling and immunological assays, bringing together researchers, clinicians, funders, and representatives from major research consortia. Participants reviewed approaches to sampling the upper and lower respiratory tract, assay technologies, and regulatory considerations for integrating mucosal endpoints into vaccine development. Discussions highlighted major barriers including variability in sampling techniques, low and inconsistent cell yields, limited assay standardisation, and insufficient cross-study comparability. The workshop produced a set of recommendations in four priority areas (i.e., Collaboration, Communication, Consistency and Conduct of research) to share knowledge, accelerate standardisation and validation, and generate evidence supporting mucosal vaccine development. Together, these advances will help strengthen the scientific and regulatory foundations needed to realize the full potential of airway-delivered vaccines for the prevention of respiratory diseases.

VaccineVol. 88
Statens Serum Institut (DK), University of Copenhagen (DK), Boston Children's Hospital (US), National Institutes of Health (US), La Jolla Institute for Immunology (US), Harvard University (US), University of Liverpool (GB), Novo Nordisk (Denmark) (DK), Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme (MW), Leiden University Medical Center (NL), Novo Nordisk Foundation (DK), Copenhagen University Hospital (DK), Gentofte Hospital (DK), Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine (GB), Karolinska Institutet (SE), University of Oxford (GB), London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (GB), Healthcentric Advisors (US), South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (ZA), Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (NO), Africa Health Research Institute (ZA), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (US), Wellcome Library (GB), Jenner Institute (GB), CTI BioPharma (Italy) (IT), UK Health Security Agency (GB), University College London (GB), Imperial College London (GB), Medical University of Vienna (AT), Wellcome Trust (GB)
Wellcome Trust, Novo Nordisk Fonden
Zero hunger
Openalex Percentile: Top 9%
Asthma and respiratory diseases
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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