The focus of Professor Dougan's research group is on the pathogenicity and vaccinology of enteric bacterial pathogens. His group are particularly interested in how infectious agents interact with the immune system and how this interaction impacts on the outcome of disease.
Infection is studied from the perspective of both the pathogen and the host.
The research effort falls generally into two areas. One team are working mainly on mucosal adjuvants and mucosal vaccines. The other team are working on Salmonella with a focus on human typhoid. They are also interested in the regulation of the immune response to mucosally delivered antigens and the consequences of this for immunisation and immune pathology. Several antigen delivery systems, based on live organisms, non-living antigens or nucleic acid, are employed in these studies.