Summary
Chris Chiu is an Infectious Diseases physician and Immunologist. He underwent his basic medical training at Cambridge and Oxford Universities, and was later awarded a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Training fellowship to undertake a PhD with Charles Bangham and Margaret Callan, initially at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine (University of Oxford) and then at Imperial College London, to show the transcriptional programming of early CD8 T cell responses to acute viral infection. On completion of his specialist training, he was awarded an MRC Clinician Scientist fellowship and furthered his research by working with Rafi Ahmed's group at Emory University, examining antibody, B cell and T cell responses to influenza and varicella zoster virus vaccines.
His research interests focus on pathogenesis and protective immunity in human respiratory viral infections, including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza and SARS-CoV-2. These are some of the most important causes of severe disease worldwide and there is an urgent need for improved vaccines and treatments for these pathogens. To discover why some people suffer life-threatening illness while others have only mild or asymptomatic infection, he has developed a set of unique experimental medicine techniques. He is an expert in human infection challenge studies and leads a group that uses infection and vaccination of volunteers as well as patient-centred research to investigate systemic and mucosal immunity against these infections. These highly specialised methods provide a unique opportunity to examine correlates and mechanisms of protection and disease severity in human beings. The work encompasses early phase clinical vaccine trials as well as fundamental studies of human immunity, which together enhance our understanding of how respiratory viral illnesses may be prevented and accelerate the development of better vaccines.
Prof Chiu also heads the Imperial Network for Vaccine Research, which brings together investigators from across all faculties with an interest in vaccines, and is Scientific and Research Officer of the British Infection Association. His group is part of a number of international consortia, including the NIAID CIVICs programme and European Union IMI projects, and welcomes collaboration with researchers (both industry and academic) who wish to work together to pursue their shared interests.
Selected Publications
Journal Articles
Wagstaffe HR, Thwaites RS, Reynaldi A, et al., 2024, Mucosal and systemic immune correlates of viral control after SARS-CoV-2 infection challenge in seronegative adults, Science Immunology, Vol:9, ISSN:2470-9468
Zhou J, Singanayagam A, Goonawardane N, et al., 2023, Viral emissions into the air and environment after SARS-CoV-2 human challenge: a phase 1, open label, first-in-human study, The Lancet Microbe, Vol:4, ISSN:2666-5247, Pages:e579-e590
Temple DS, Hegarty-Craver M, Furberg RD, et al., 2023, Wearable sensor-based detection of influenza in presymptomatic and asymptomatic individuals, Journal of Infectious Diseases, Vol:227, ISSN:0022-1899, Pages:864-872
Ascough S, Dayananda P, Kalyan M, et al., 2022, Divergent age-related humoral correlates of protection against respiratory syncytial virus infection in older and young adults: a pilot, controlled, human infection challenge model, The Lancet Healthy Longevity, Vol:3, ISSN:2666-7568, Pages:E405-E416
Killingley B, Mann AJ, Kalinova M, et al., 2022, Safety, tolerability and viral kinetics during SARS-CoV-2 human challenge in young adults, Nature Medicine, Vol:28, ISSN:1078-8956, Pages:1031-1041
McKendry R, Lemm N-M, Papargyris L, et al., 2022, Human Challenge Studies with Coronaviruses Old and New., Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology, ISSN:0070-217X
Paterson S, Kar S, Ung SK, et al., 2021, Innate-like gene expression of lung-resident memory CD8+ T-cells during experimental human influenza, American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Vol:204, ISSN:1073-449X, Pages:826-841
Felt SA, Sun Y, Jozwik A, et al., 2021, Detection of respiratory syncytial virus defective genomes in nasal secretions is associated with distinct clinical outcomes, Nature Microbiology, Vol:6, ISSN:2058-5276, Pages:672-681
Habibi MS, Thwaites RS, Chang M, et al., 2020, Neutrophilic inflammation in the respiratory mucosa predisposes to RSV infection., Science, Vol:370
Guvenel A, Jozwik A, Ascough S, et al., 2020, Epitope-specific airway-resident CD4+ T-cell dynamics during experimental human RSV infection, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Vol:130, ISSN:0021-9738, Pages:523-538
Ascough S, Vlachantoni I, Kalyan M, et al., 2019, Local and systemic immunity against RSV induced by a novel intranasal vaccine: A randomised, double- blind, placebo-controlled trial, American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Vol:200, ISSN:1073-449X, Pages:481-492
Ascough SC, Paterson S, Chiu C, 2018, Induction and subversion of human protective immunity: contrasting influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, Frontiers in Immunology, Vol:9, ISSN:1664-3224
Jozwik A, Habibi MS, Paras A, et al., 2015, RSV-specific airway resident memory CD8+ T cells and differential disease severity after experimental human infection, Nature Communications, Vol:6, ISSN:2041-1723, Pages:1-17
Habibi MS, Jozwik A, Makris S, et al., 2015, Impaired antibody-mediated protection and defective IgA B cell memory in experimental infection of adults with respiratory syncytial virus, American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Vol:191, ISSN:1535-4970
Li G-M, Chiu C, Wrammert J, et al., 2012, Pandemic H1N1 influenza vaccine induces a recall response in humans that favors broadly cross-reactive memory B cells., Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, Vol:109, Pages:9047-9052
Chapters
Dayananda P, Chiu C, Openshaw P, 2022, Controlled human infection challenge studies with RSV., Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology, Editor(s): Ahmed, Akira, Casadevall, Galan, Garcia-Sastre, Malissen, Rappuoli, Pages:1-28