The Department of Life Sciences (DoLS) at Imperial College London, headed by Professor Daniel Davis, embraces the full breadth of modern life sciences activity. It is one of the largest life sciences groups in Europe, with approximately 100 academic staff, 180+ research fellows and post-doctoral researchers, 50+ technical services staff, 40+ professional services staff, 200+ PhD students, 200+ Masters students and 800+ UG students. The Department's research and teaching activities are funded by a wide variety of research councils, charities and industries bodies, with the value of current external research grants totalling more than £100 million.

DoLS is located on 2 campuses at South Kensington and Silwood Park. Research activity is organised into 12 themes; in addition, staff are integrated into a number of multidisciplinary, cross-departmental research centres. We run 2 undergraduate degrees (Biology and Biochemistry/Biotechnology), and 16 Masters courses.

Klebsiella pneumoniae is a multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogen that causes life-threatening infections and is one of the most serious public health problems.

There is currently no vaccine against Klebsiella pneumoniae. The main vaccine antigen, the capsular polysaccharide, exists as more than 75 different serotypes, making a broadly protective conjugated vaccine very difficult and costly to produce. The aim of this project is to identify novel antigens as potential vaccine candidates fake uhren against Klebsiella pneumonia. The Klebsiella genome will be screened to identify surface-exposed antigens, which will then be characterised for their functional and immunological properties. The most promising antigens playing a key role in virulence and immunogenicity, either alone or in combination with selected capsular polysaccharides or O-antigens, may guide the design of a multivalent Klebsiella pneumoniae vaccine.

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