Video Interviews
The Immunopaedia team conducts video interviews of influential immunologists as often as possible. These leading researchers speak to us on a variety of subjects and we record them for posterity.
Carla Rothlin and Elina Zuniga
Immunopaedia Ambassador Yane Valdez was fortunate to interview both founders of the popular Global Immunotalks; Professor Carla Rothlin and Professor Elina Zuniga. The Global Immunotalks began in 2020 and offer free global access to immunology seminars from experts across the world. The talks offer a Q & A on Twitter (@globalimmuno) are recorded and shared on a dedicated YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/GLOBALIMMUNOTALKS).
Sign up for the talks Live on Wednesdays 9AM PST, 12PM EST, 5PM – https://ucsd.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_8fljQxqKQVOfEUFYCYtEVw
Watch Now: Carla Rothlin and Elina Zuniga
Erica L Johnson
Dr. Erica L Johnson’s research focuses on understanding correlates of protection during pregnancy, defining mechanisms of natural immune control and determining how these can be exploited to develop interventions that limit mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of pathogens (Source: Morehouse School of Medicine). In this interview Dr Johnson discusses her research and major findings she has published, she also provides insights on the impact of COVID-19 on the placenta and in utero-transmission. Interview conducted via Zoom, edited in iMovie.
Watch Now: Erica L Johnson
David Sacks
Dr. Sacks research focuses on the immunology and cell biology of leishmanial infections and the biology of Leishmania parasites within their mammalian hosts and sand-fly vectors. The research may have relevance to diseases, such as tuberculosis, caused by other intracellular pathogens or to other vector-borne diseases, such as malaria. (Source: David Sacks NIH Webpage).
Watch Now: David Sacks
Fabienne Tacchini-Cottier
Fabienne Tacchini-Cottier is an A/Prof in Immunology and the director of the WHO Immunology Research and Training Centre. Her research interests are 1) the role of the innate immune response in the modulation of antigen specific immune responses, with a focus on the role of neutrophils in this process, and 2) the factors determining the differentiation of CD4+ T helper subsets. In this interview she discusses her journey to become an immunologist and her research focus, as well as the importance of training immunologists.
Watch Now: Fabienne Tacchini-Cottier
Hans-Martin Jäck Interview
Hans-Martin Jäck is a Professor for Immunology and the director the Division of Molecular Immunology at the University of Erlangen, Germany. His research focuses on B cell immunology, specifically on the generation of therapeutic human antibodies against multiple myeloma in a transgenic mouse platform expressing the entire human antibody repertoire and the development of mature B cells into effector cells (memory B- and plasma cells). In this interview Prof Jäck discusses his contribution to B cell immunology.
Watch Now: Hans-Martin Jäck Interview
Claire J. Hoving Interview
Claire J. Hoving is an immunologist and her research aims at understanding host immune responses to disease with a particular focus on HIV-related fungal infections. Fungal infections are often an overlooked clinical and public health issue. There are very few researchers dissecting the mechanisms of fungal infections in Africa, yet research in this field will provide new insights into protective immunity and may lead to improved treatments for immunocompromised hosts. During this interview she emphasises the importance of conducting fugal immunology research, as well as advice for future fungal immunologists.
Watch now: Claire J Hoving Interview
Michele A. Miller Interview
Prof Michele Miller is the South African Research Chair in Animal TB DST-NRF Centre of Excellence for Biomedical Tuberculosis Research at the SA-Medical Research Council Centre for Biomedical Tuberculosis Research based at Stellenbosch University. Prof. Miller was interviewed by Caleb Muefong during the January 2020 TB Keystone Meeting. This interview cover’s Prof. Miller’s research interest and advice for young immunologist who would like to conduct research in Africa and Globally.
Watch and read now: Michele A. Miller Interview
Yaw Bediako Interview
Yaw Bediako is a Ghanian immunologist, whose current research focuses on malaria immunology. He is currently a Research Fellow at West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens -University of Ghana. In addition to his academic post, he was recently selected to be an Affiliate Member of the African Academy of Sciences. He is very passionate about increasing the research capacity of African Scientists as well as creating a network of researchers on the continent. His commitment to this is evident by being one of the executive members of the African Science Initiative.
Yaw was one of the faculty members of the IDA2019 symposium, and we were fortunate to interview him. His interview focuses on his journey from Grad-student to Post-Doctoral research scientist, highlighting lessons he learnt through his career progression.
Watch now: Yaw Bediako Interview
Immunoinformatics 2019 Course Highlight
To prepare regional scientists for the interdisciplinary Next Generation of Immunology, the IUIS EDU Committee, in collaboration with the Latin American Association of Immunology (ALAI) and the Mexican Society of Immunology (SMI), organised a course focused on informatics tools applied to Systems Immunology, a first in Latin America,. With representatives from 8 countries, the IUIS-ALAI-SMI Immunoinformatics Course was held on April 8th-10th, 2019, at the Center of Complexity Sciences of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, in Mexico City.
Watch a visual summary of the Course
Virginie Rozot Interview
Virginie Rozot is a Research Officer at the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative, University of Cape Town (SATVI, UCT). Virginie conducted her PhD Research at the University of Lausanne, which she completed in 2013. She then began a Post-Doctoral Research fellowship at SATVI, UCT. Her research focuses on understanding Tuberculosis-specific immune responses associated with different stages of infection and disease progression, as well as novel TB vaccine responses.
During her Post-Doc, part of her research utilised mass cytometry to understand immune kinetics associated with progression of TB disease. We were fortunate to conduct a special interview focusing on mass Cytometry and her experience using the first mass cytometer to cross the Southern Hemisphere [and is currently housed at SATVI, UCT, South Africa.
Watch now: Virginie Rozot interview
Gama Bandawe Interview
Gama Bandawe is head of the Department of Biological Sciences in the Academy of Medical Sciences at the Malawi University of Science and Technology. Gama conducted his PhD research in medical virology at the University of Cape Town.
“Dr Bandawe has extensive experience in medical virology research, laboratory management and publication having worked with several global consortia including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded Centres for HIV AIDS Vaccine Immunology (CHAVI), the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise (GHAVE), and the Centre for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA).” ( Source: MUST Profile)
In 2018, Dr Bandawe and the department became awardees of the Instrumental Access Program of Seeding Labs (listen to our audio interview for more)
Gama was one of the faculty members at the 8th Infectious Diseases in Africa Symposium which took place in November 2018. The immunopaedia team was fortunate to interview him, discussing his journey, triumphs and challenges in creating a research lab in a relatively young university.
Watch and Litsen now: Gama Bandawe Interview
One B Dintwe Interview
One B. Dintwe is a Research Officer at the Cape Town HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) Immunology Laboratory (CHIL) and Staff Scientist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
One conducted her PhD research with South African Tuberculosis (TB) Vaccine Initiative, where she primarily focused on understanding T cell memory phenotypes associated with TB infection. She then joined CHIL where she continued focusing of classical T cell immunology, however in the context of HIV immunology. In particular,“One is interested in understanding the role of vaccine induced memory T-cells, and which memory T cell subsets should a vaccine aim to induce for protection against HIV. Her research will involve thorough interrogation of the phenotype and transcriptional profile of vaccine induced T cells in order to better understand these T cell responses.” (Source: Fred Hutch Profile)
One was one of the faculty members at the 8th Infectious Diseases in Africa Symposium which took place in November 2018. The immunopaedia team was fortunate to interview her, discussing the current status of HIV vaccines.
Watch now: One Dintwe Interview
Simon J. Draper Interview
Simon J. Draper is Professor of Vaccinology and Translational Medicine, Wellcome Trust Senior Fellow and Jenner Investigator based at the University of Oxford. Simon received the Lister Institute Research Prize Fellow in 2018, an award aimed at researchers in the early years of running their own groups .
Simon heads the Blood-Stage Malaria Group at the Jenner institute which focuses on the development of novel and improved approaches to blood-stage malaria vaccine design, as well as aiming to better understand mechanisms of vaccine-induced immunity to blood-stage malaria infection.
Simon was one of the faculty members at the 8th Infectious Diseases in Africa Symposium which took place in November 2018. The immunopaedia team was fortunate to interview him, discussing the current status of malaria vaccines.
Watch now: Simon Draper Interview
ALAI-SMI Special Interviews
The XII congress of the Latin American Association of Immunology (ALAI) and XXIII congress of the Mexican Society of Immunology (SMI) was held in May in Cancun, Mexico, under the slogan “Latin American Immunologists Fighting Disease”. The congress provided a platform for attendees, ranging from renowned senior immunologist to undergraduate and graduate students, representing diverse fields of immunology to interact and share recent discoveries.
Immunopaedia Ambassadors, Juan Carlos Balandrán and Jennifer Enciso Immunopaedia took some time during the conference to interview prominent researchers: Alberto Mantovani, Alberto Orfao, Gabriel Rabinovich and Paul Frennette who attended the ALAI-SMI conference.
Watch Now: ALAI-SMI Special Interviews