Sophie Valkenburg obtained her PhD from training at the University of Melbourne, Australia on CD8 T cell immunity to influenza infection with Katherine Kedzierska. She joined the University of Hong Kong for her postdoctoral training in Leo Poon’s lab to explore universal influenza vaccines. She has now established her own research team at HKU Pasteur. The main objectives of the lab are to define immune correlates of protection for influenza viruses from infection and vaccination. Her research is centred on the role of protective heterologous T and B cell immunity in mouse and human systems, by investigating novel vaccines and immune correlates of protection for influenza. The primary focus is to study adaptive immunity to influenza, and how this could be harnessed and optimised by vaccination to improve protection from diverse influenza virus infection. Hemagglutinin (HA)-specific antibodies can block influenza infection, whilst T cells recognise influenza-infected cells. A vaccine which ultimately combines antibody and T cell-based immunity for influenza will provide a full-proof immunological barrier to influenza infection, which our studies will ultimately help develop.