Dr
Andrea
Zelmer
After obtaining a degree in Biology at the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany I completed my PhD in 2005 at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Braunschweig where I worked on "Intracellular Bacteria as Vectors for Gene Transfer in vitro and in vivo". I then moved to the UCL School of Pharmacy as a postdoctoral researcher where I focussed on a rat model of E. coli K1 infection in neonates and treatment thereof in keeping with the theme of bacterial infections. I joined LSHTM in 2008 for a second postdoctoral position to set up an in vivo imaging system to facilitate testing of anti-tuberculosis drugs. Since 2014 I've been an Assistant Professor at LSHTM, working on multi-disciplinary approaches to facilitate vaccine testing and development for tuberculosis.
My current research focuses on vaccines for tuberculosis, with emphasis on development of clinically relevant in vivo models and ex vivo mycobacterial growth inhibition assays (MGIA), and use of these to test tuberculosis vaccines and elucidate mechanisms by which they work or fail in certain populations. The efficacy of Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG), the only licensed vaccine against tuberculosis, is highly variable. I am interested in the host response to BCG to help us understand how the vaccine protects from disease, and why sometimes it doesn’t.
The necessity for relevant models and technologies for early vaccine testing and the importance of understanding the underlying immune response to vaccines and identifying factors that limit efficacy, span across species and pathogens. I am therefore interested in learning more about the possibilities of transferring the above approaches to veterinary vaccine research.
I also have a keen interest in application and development of optical imaging methods.