Dr Jennifer Rose Habel is a postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Professor Katherine Kedzierska at the University of Melbourne. She completed her PhD in 2024, during which she investigated the correlates of antiviral immunity in pregnant women. Her research focuses on cytotoxic lymphocytes, particularly natural killer (NK) cells and CD8+ T cells, and their roles in protecting against viral infections.
Using advanced cellular and molecular tools such as single-cell RNA sequencing, Dr Habel is uncovering how pregnancy and early life shape antiviral immunity. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she made a landmark discovery as the first to identify a SARS-CoV-2 CD8+ T cell epitope (PNAS, 2020). She later revealed how immunity to SARS-CoV-2 is uniquely modulated during pregnancy (JCI Insight, 2023).
An emerging leader in the field, she has already published fifteen papers, received more than 680 citations, and earned seventeen awards and scholarships, including the CEIRR Fellowship, the QIAGEN PhD Achievement Award, and multiple international travel grants to present her work on the global stage.
Can you tell us a little about your scientific journey – what inspired you to pursue immunology, and how you became interested in pregnancy immunology? Particularly, your focus on the intersection between virology, immunology, and reproductive health?
My interest in medical sciences began back in my high school anatomy and physiology class – I came to realise just how complex the human body was and wanted to know more! This led me to take a course in nursing, where I found the science behind clinical care super interesting, but decided that the patient-facing role was not my thing at the time. I pivoted to a Biomedical Science degree, which sparked my interest in T cell immunology. I volunteered in Professor Weisan Chen’s laboratory at La Trobe University during my undergraduate studies and gained hands-on experience in culturing human T cells. I then got in touch with Professor Katherine Kedzierska at the University of Melbourne to pursue my Honours degree and a PhD focused on immunity to viruses during pregnancy, which I now continue in my postdoctoral research.
The interest in pursuing this pregnancy-related research really comes down to the fact that pregnant women are an understudied but very important risk-group for severe viral infections. A lot less is known about antiviral immunity during pregnancy due to a lack of clinical studies in this population. This is something that needs to be addressed!
Currently, my research focuses on understanding how pregnancy affects NK cell and CD8+ T cell immunity. Both are cytotoxic lymphocytes that can directly kill infected or cancerous cells, which poses a conundrum during pregnancy, where there are foetal-derived antigens and other signals that can trigger activation of these immune cells.
You recently gave a talk entitled “Pregnancy impacts epitope-specific CD8+ T cells directed towards acute and chronic viruses”. For our readers could you briefly summarise the key findings?
Of course! This work is ongoing, so we are still figuring out the details. So far, we can see that in pregnancy, there are differences in the transcriptional profiles and protein expression of CD8+ T cell specific for acute respiratory viruses and chronic viruses. The interesting part is that the differences we see depend on virus-specificity, meaning that pregnancy does not affect acute respiratory and chronic virus-specific CD8+ T cells in the same way.
What are the main ways pregnancy reshapes the function or phenotype of CD8+ T cells, especially in response to viral infections?
I think when it comes to respiratory virus immunity, it is still up for debate how exactly pregnancy impacts CD8+ T cells. Our previous work on SARS-CoV-2 infections during pregnancy showed that the CD8+ T cells became activated to a similar extent as non-pregnant individuals. Others have shown that in vitro, T cells from pregnant women responded better than non-pregnant women to influenza A virus. There is definitely more work to be done, and I hope my research can help fill some of these knowledge gaps.
How might your findings influence our understanding of maternal vulnerability to infections during pregnancy?
Many other physiological mechanisms are impacted by pregnancy such as lung capacity and respiration which would have a more direct impact on respiratory infection severity. Therefore, it is likely that a combination of factors, not the immune system alone, contributes to the increased risk of viral infection disease severity. Deciphering how antiviral immunity is impacted in pregnancy will help determine whether these differences directly impact disease severity or serve as a correlates of protection or severity.
Could these insights help inform vaccine development or therapeutic strategies tailored for pregnant women?
This is certainly the goal! Pregnant women are often excluded from clinical trials for vaccines and therapeutics due to the concern for unknown teratogenic effects. While this is a very important consideration it does mean that strategies to treat or prevent infections in pregnancy are not as well-defined. Our thinking is – if we can have a detailed understanding of how pregnancy impacts the immune system, then things like vaccines and immunotherapies can be better designed for use in pregnancy.
That being said, there are several important vaccines for respiratory infections that are recommended in pregnancy – like the influenza, pertussis, and respiratory syncytial virus vaccines, which are not only important in protecting the mother, but also in transferring passive immunity to the baby to provide them some level of protection at the start of life.
What were some of the biggest challenges in carrying out this research – technical, clinical, or conceptual?
I would say the biggest hurdle with this project was the learning curve for analysing RNAseq datasets. Once I got my head around that I could progress the research to follow up on interesting differentially expressed markers.
Are there particular collaborations (clinical, computational, or translational) that you think will be essential to move this field forward?
All of the above! Our clinical collaborations provide critical access to human samples that allow us to study the immune system. With the ever-increasing dimensionality of datasets, we need to work hand in hand with bioinformaticians to perform appropriate analyses, and if we’re fortunate enough to find a lead suitable for translation into the clinic then we will certainly be consulting with experts in that area.
What are the next big questions you would like to answer about pregnancy?
I find epigenetics fascinating; I’d love to look more into epigenetic regulation of the altered immune phenotypes observed in pregnancy.
What advice would you give young scientists, especially women, entering the field of immunology today?
Immunology is so complex, it is easy to lose focus of the big picture. Remember to take a step back and think about your research in the full context of the disease/condition you’re focused on. While I am still relatively early in my career, I think young women starting their career in immunology should remember that they can be their authentic self and also a great scientist, they’re not mutually exclusive.
Who have been the most influential mentors or collaborators in your scientific career?
Prof Katherine Kedzierska has been my greatest mentor and has given me so many amazing opportunities – I wouldn’t be on the path I am on now without her guidance. I have also loved working with our collaborators at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital – Prof Paul Thomas, Dr Kaity Allen, and Dr Jeremy Crawford, who have great perspective that I really appreciate.
What excites you most about the future of immunology?
I think there is still so much to discover, especially regarding precise cell-cell interactions and the influence cytokines can have on cellular responses.
What do you enjoy outside the lab, when the pipette is laid to rest and the lab coat is off?
I am fortunate enough to live right near Royal Park here in Melbourne – which is great for bird watching and wildlife photography of our native species! I also enjoy rock climbing, and anything crafty like crocheting, pottery, and cross-stitching.
Interview by Stefan Botha
