D. Huw DAVIES

Associate Professor Emeritus, Physiology & Biophysics
School of Medicine

vaccines, adjuvants, influenza virus, SARS-CoV-2, poxviruses, immunogenicity, antigen discovery, preclinical challenge models

Texas A&M University, Post Doctoral: 1984-1988
Imperial Cancer Research Fund, Post Doctoral : 1988-1991
King’s College London, Lecturer: 1991-1998
King’s College London, Senior Lecturer: 1998-2003
University of California Irvine, Visiting Scientist (sabbatical): 2003-2004
University of California Irvine, Associate Project Scientist: 2004-2011
University of California Irvine, Project Scientist: 2011-2019

The main activity in the lab was to improve influenza vaccines. Current seasonal flu vaccines are poorly immunogenic and only work if the vaccine strains are closely matched against strains in circulation. The formulation has to be adjusted each season to cope with antigenic drift. We explored ways to increase the breadth and magnitude of the immune response to recombinant hemagglutinin using multivalent formulations, nanoparticle delivery vehicles, combination adjuvants (mixtures of TLR agonists) and emulsions. Techniques we used included serological profiling by protein microarrays, cytokine profiling in T cell recall assays, in vitro neutralization assays, and efficacy studies in vivo in the mouse model. Similar approaches were used for the development broadly reactive vaccines against different ebola virus glycoproteins.

I am an immunologist with a special interest in vaccine development. I earned my Ph.D. at University College London (UCL), where, after a brief post-doc at Texas A&M Entomology Dept., I returned to develop HPV vaccines in the ICRF Human Tumour Immunology Group. I joined the faculty at King’s College London in 1991 where I taught immunology and continued research into HPV vaccines. I came to UCI on sabbatical in 2003, where I helped develop a proteome microarray platform using vaccinia virus as the model pathogen. I retired from UCI on 7/1/26.

For an up-to-date list of my publications from PubMed, please click here.

Link to this profile
https://faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=6756

Last updated
09/11/2026