Molecular and Cellular characterisation of novel viral CD8+ T cell epitopes from Influenza and SARS-CoV-2

When a virus infects a cell, it gets broken down and small pieces of it called peptides are presented by antigen presenting molecules called Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLAs). HLAs present these viral peptides to T cells to flag that it has been infected for the T cells to destroy the infected cell. This thesis examines how T cells respond to different peptides derived from influenza and SARS-CoV-2 when presented by different HLA molecules.