Ms Ailish McCafferty

I am a Research Associate in the Virus Host Interactions Team, led by Dr Clive McKimmie, within the Skin Research Centre, University of York. My research focuses on immunity to mosquito-borne viruses, or arboviruses, such as Zika virus, dengue virus and Chikungunya virus. In particular, I investigate the complex interactions which occur at the arbovirus transmission site, the skin, between the virus, the host and the insect vector to understand how these impact host susceptibility to infection. To investigate this, I predominantly use a unique in vivo mouse model of arbovirus infection, which includes exposing mice to bites from the Aedes aegypti mosquito. This facilitates the testing of vaccine and therapuetic candidates in a model which mimics natural arbovirus transmission as closely as possible.