Collaborative Networks

The immunity to Streptococcus pyogenes (iSpy) Network was launched as a global multi-institution network involving 28 investigators from 11 countries, spearheaded by the Nizet lab at UCSD and the Imperial College London. The iSpy Network, funded by the Leducq Foundation, aims to combat deadly group A Streptococcal bacterial infections and investigate causes of sespsis and heart damage in children. iSpy is comprised of experts from Gambia, South Africa, Brazil and Fiji who specialize in vaccinology, infectious disease, immunology, epidemiology, and experimental medicine. The iSpy-LIFE sub-networkwill investigate the impact of RHD in studies involving children and youth, identifying how GAS immunity develops after naturally acquired infection. The iSpy-EXPLORE sub-network, spearheaded by the Nizet lab, will identify protective immune cell and antibody responses in experimental animals that receive promising GAS vaccine candidates while examining how the human immune system reacts to GAS infections in healthy volunteers. Collectively, this research will identify how the immune system develops GAS immunity, correlates of protective and non-protective immune responses, and how vaccines can accelerate immunity in children while protecting against strep throat, invasive infections and RHD.