Fahad Mashwal

Background

My ambition to study Medical Microbiology stemmed from my undergraduate studies when I studied Clinical Laboratory Sciences at the Prince Sultan Military College of Health Sciences in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia (2014). I completed my MSc degree in Medical Microbiology at the University of Manchester in 2018. Currently, I am pursuing my dream to complete a PhD degree in the Bacterial Pathogenesis and Immunity research group.

Project

Group B Streptococcus (GBS) is one of the leading causes of neonatal and infant mortality globally with an estimated disease burden of 319,000 cases reported in 2015, which resulted in 90,000 deaths, and up to 3.5 million preterm births. My research aim is to investigate the immune responses underlying GBS colonisation in pregnant women to understand the mechanisms of disease progression. One other objective is to understand the placental transfer of GBS-specific antibodies using human-derived and murine infection models.