Kerrie Sandgren
Dr
PhD
kerrie.sandgren@wimr.org.au
Currently open to PHD and Honours students in the topic areas of:
Human immunology
Innate immunity
Vaccine and adjuvant modes of action
particularly in human tissues
Improving vaccine efficacy in older adults
COVID-19 vaccines
mRNA vaccines

Biography
Dr Kerrie Sandgren received her PhD (viral immunology) from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia and went on to complete a post-doc at the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, and the Vaccine Research Centre, NIH, USA. She is now a senior research scientist, co-leading two research groups at The Westmead Institute – the Adjuvant Immunology group utilises a human lymph node model that she developed to study how vaccine adjuvants work and the COVID-19 Immunology group is involved in several clinical trials investigating vaccine induced immunity. Kerrie collaborates with GSK and Moderna and she has a Moderna Global Fellowship.
Research interests
Human immunology, Innate immunity, Vaccine and adjuvant modes of action, particularly in human tissues, Improving vaccine efficacy in older adults, COVID-19 vaccines, mRNA vaccines.
Kerrie is interested in how the immune activating component of some vaccines, called adjuvants, prompt the immune system to behave in such specific ways and how we can harness this information to improve vaccines for older people, giving them better protection against diseases such as influenza and COVID-19.
She is also interested in how our immune system functions in the skin – from the perspective of vaccination and also viral infection. Of particular interest is the interplay between herpes simplex virus infection and the early innate immune response to the virus, that occurs in the skin.
Adjunct roles
Research Focused Academic, Level C. | University of Sydney |
Recent publications

Innate immune cell activation by adjuvant AS01 in human lymph node explants is age independent
September 2024

Herpes simplex virus spreads rapidly in human foreskin, partly driven by chemokine-induced redistribution of Nectin-1 on keratinocytes.
June 2024

Advances in understanding the mechanism of action of adult vaccines. Journal of Clinical Investigation
December 2023

Identification of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid and spike T-cell epitopes for assessing T-cell immunity
February 2021
Additional information
USYD link – https://www.sydney.edu.au/medicine-health/about/our-people/academic-staff/kerrie.sandgren.html
Scopus ID: https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=35076502300
Affiliations
University of Sydney
Awards and recognition
2022 – Moderna Global Fellowship |
2014 – University of Sydney Early Career Researcher’s Grant |
2021 - The Westmead Institute WISE Award – in recognition of scientific excellence |
2013 – Best oral presentation – Keystone HIV Vaccines Symposium |
2012 – Swedish Society of Medical Research Postdoctoral Fellowship |
2011 – Swedish Society of Medicine Postdoctoral Fellowship |
2003 – NHMRC Dora Lush Biomedical Postgraduate Scholarship |