Jai Bolton

I completed my Undergraduate Degree in Biological Sciences at Somerville College, Oxford. I am currently a BBSRC Doctoral Training Programme student based at Keble College, Oxford, under the supervision of Dr Craig Thompson (University of Warwick, UK) along with Dr Anita Milicic (University of Oxford) and Dr Alexandra Spencer (University of Newcastle, Australia). I conduct most of my lab work at Warwick Medical School.

I am interested in determining the population immunity to influenza virus strains that pose a significant pandemic risk to humans and animals. My research involves conducting high throughput pseudotype microneutralisation assays on an automated robotic platform, followed by bioinformatic analysis and machine learning to identify conserved epitopes which could help identify good universal influenza vaccine candidates. The modelling predictions are then tested experimentally by undertaking site-directed mutagenesis.