Tiraput Poonpanichakul

Background

I enrolled in Medical School but later decided to complete a BSc  degree in Medical Science (Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand) to pursue scientific academic research. Following graduation, I worked as a research assistant at the Systems Biology of Disease Research Unit, Faculty of Science, Mahidol University. I later moved to Chakri Naruebodindra Medical Institute, Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi hospital, Mahidol University. To further my knowledge and skills, I applied to and was awarded the Mahidol-Liverpool PhD 2020 scholarship and started my PhD studentship at University of Liverpool under the joint supervision of Dr Marie Yang (University of Liverpool), and Prof Aras Kadioglu (University of Liverpool) and Dr Pisut Pongchaikul (Mahidol University). I'm interested in combining information from both traditional wet lab experiments and computational analysis to tackle research questions in immunology and microbiology. My PhD project focuses on developing a vaccine against Group B Streptococcus using a reverse vaccinology approach.

Research project

Streptococcus agalactiae (or Group B streptococcus, GBS) is a major cause of life-threatening neonatal diseases globally. There is currently no licensed vaccine for GBS and the current treatment and prevention primarily rely on the use of antibiotics. However, the rate of antimicrobial resistance is alarmingly rising hence prophylactic approaches to GBS are highly warranted. My PhD project aims to unravel novel vaccine candidates using reverse vaccinology approach to guide vaccine development against antimicrobial-resistance GBS.