Tarfah Alshuhaytan

I graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, Saudi Arabia as a medical doctor with specialty in microbiology then completed an MSc in Infection and Immunity at the University College London (UK) in 2015. I subsequently worked as a Teaching Lecturer in Microbiology at the Department of Pathology, (Riyadh). I am fascinated and interested on Microbiology research especially bacterial pathogenesis and their antibiotic resistance, development of vaccines and novel therapeutics against emerging and re- emerging infectious diseases in human.

The development of a next generation vaccine against pneumococcal diseases is needed to address the severe limitations of current licensed pneumococcal vaccines i.e., limited coverage and cost, and represents an efficient approach towards combatting the emergence of antimicrobial drug resistance. Liposomal formulations represent a unique platform as a delivery system for antigens such as proteins or peptides. Bacterial antigen presentation within a liposomal structure also represents an effective mean of mimicking antigen presentation and elicit potent immune responses. My project aims to design novel liposome-based vaccine formulations comprising pneumococcal antigens e.g., proteins and/or lipids, and assess their immunogenicity and protective efficacy using preclinical models of pneumococcal diseases.