Abstract
To date, invasive clinician-collected cervical samples, blood, and vaginal samples are still the primary methods to monitor disease and immune responses to vaccine-preventable genital tract infections. Replacing these samples with a specimen that is non-invasive and can be self-collected at home, such as the initial or first-void urine (FVU) stream, could have major acceptance and feasibility advantages and could drastically facilitate the logistics of clinical trials and future epidemiological studies. Initial results of experiments using FVU samples for immune response monitoring are promising. Nevertheless, overall standardization is essential for FVU to become the ideal genital tract liquid biopsy in vaccine research. With my PhD project, I wish to contribute to this aspect by using Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infection and vaccination as a model. Thereby, I will mainly focus on the immunogenicity of HPV vaccines and the monitoring of immune responses using FVU as a non-invasive liquid biopsy. As this will allow identification of anti-HPV antibodies as a normalized and standardized prediction tool for the immunization status of women, I believe this project will ultimately improve follow-up in HPV vaccination studies and programs. If my project proves successful, and FVU can replace other sample types, applications will largely extend the sexually transmitted infection (STI) field, contributing to the advancement of both personal and public health.
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