Human Challenge Studies in Endemic Settings - Malaria and Dengue

Title: Unravelling the course of malaria infections: Controlled Human Malaria Infection in Semi-Immune Adults
Speaker: Dr Melissa Kapulu

Melissa Kapulu is a post-doc based at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kilifi. Before taking up the post, she read for a DPhil on malaria transmission-blocking vaccines in Adrian Hill’s lab, Jenner Institute, University of Oxford. Prior to this, she had attended the University of Zambia where she undertook a BSc in Molecular Biology and Genetics and an MSc in Immunology of Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She is currently involved in establishing, conducting and leading work on controlled human malaria infection studies to study blood-stage growth and transmissibility to msoquitoes. Her main interests are in understanding and characterising signatures of malaria transmission by looking for molecular and immunological markers that can be developed as tools for detecting and preventing human-to-mosquito malaria transmissibility potential.

Title: The Challenges of Developing a Dengue Human Infection Model in an Endemic Setting
Speaker: Professor Bridget Wills

Bridget Wills is Professor of Tropical Medicine at the University of Oxford and Head of the Dengue Research Group at the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Her work focuses primarily on clinical studies designed to improve diagnosis and management of dengue, together with research to understand the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms of the disease.