Lab background
Group Leader Sarah Caddy trained as a vet at the University of Cambridge, UK. After a few years in practice she embarked on a virology PhD at Imperial College London. During her post-doc at the MRC-Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge she learnt that there is still a lot to uncover about antibodies. She was awarded a Wellcome Trust Fellowship in 2018, which allowed her to join CITIID in the Department of Medicine at Cambridge and begin her work on maternal antibodies.
Dr. Sarah Caddy is intrigued by the many ways in which antibodies can interact with viruses. Despite antibodies being first described over a century ago, there is still a lot to uncover about how antibodies work. she is particularly interested in maternal antibodies, which are transferred from mother to infant in all mammalian species.
“It is amazing that these antibodies can be both protective against infection and yet inhibitory for vaccines at the same time”
Alongside characterization of maternal antibody transfer and interference, Dr. Caddy is interested in the relationship between antibodies and T cells. Her recent work has found that some antibodies can enhance antigen presentation of a mouse virus (LCMV) via the intracellular antibody receptor TRIM21. Her work predicts that this phenomenon can occur during infections with other viruses, and also aims to uncover more molecular detail of this pathway. This may open up new vaccine strategies that focus on induction of T cell immunity, which could be of particular benefit in infants with maternal antibodies.
In July 2022 the Caddy Lab opened at the Baker Institute for Animal Health, Cornell University. Located in the beautiful town of Ithaca, upstate New York.
