Preventing_Pneumococcal_Disease_Through_Vaccination__Study_2_

Streptococcus pneumoniae (SPN) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, causing community acquired pneumonia (CAP), bacterial meningitis and bacteremia. Pneumococcal infections cause over 1 million pneumonia deaths per year in children in the developing world and is a major burden of otitis media globally. The LSTM Experimental Human Pneumococcal Challenge (EHPC) model is a unique method of measuring pneumococcal colonization of bacteria, understanding the effect of pneumococcal colonization on acquired immunity, and allows vaccines to be tested in adults to understand their effect on colonization in a manner which is cost-effective and uses much smaller numbers of participants compared to large phase III clinical trials. During the EHPC, Prof Daniella Ferreira identified vancomycin-resistant S. pneumoniae isolates. They are sent to Sanger for sequencing. We aim to identify the genetic mechanism for the vancomycin resistance in these pneumococal isolates.