Dennis Hoving
Research areas of interest: Immunology, vaccinology, infectious diseases
Affiliation(s)
Leiden University Medical Center | Leiden University Center for Infectious Diseases
Education and Research background
I got introduced to research during my BSc in Biology in Madrid, where I joined a research lab where I worked every day after classes to investigate parasitology and immunity in wild tropical birds. I then moved to London, UK, to pursue my MSc in Immunology of infectious diseases at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. After this, I did my PhD exploring systemic infections and innate immunity at the Francis Crick institute. For my postdoc, I joined the LUMC in 2021, where I have been working on setting up a flow cytometry assay to characterise polysaccharide antigen-specific B cells, that we use in numerous projects to study responses to vaccines and infections.
My work on immune responses to vaccines
One of the main tools that I apply in my research is a flow cytometry approach to study polysaccharide antigen-specific B cell responses. We have used this method to demonstrate that different Pneumococcal vaccines induce quantitative and phenotypic differences in memory B cell responses, and have applied this approach to study vaccine-induced memory in experimental human challenge models, and to study vaccine antigen-specific germinal centre response in draining lymph nodes. We are also investigating the impact of age, comorbidities and geography on vaccine immunogenicity.
beyond research
I have a fascination for reptiles and love to explore the (reachable) depths of the sea scuba diving. In my free time, you can often find me in the cinema.