Dr Sofia Khanum is a scientist specializing in immunology, microbiology, molecular biology and biochemistry. Sofia is an AgResearch employee seconded to Lucidome Bio. Her research focus at Lucidome Bio is to develop innovative tools to study the interaction of antibodies with the rumen methanogens. Her particular emphasis is on characterising immunological epitopes of methanogen proteins to aid in the development of vaccine. She is also involved in developing methods using flow cytometry and immune-capture technology to study the gut microbes and their interactions with the host immune response. Sofia received her PhD in Biochemistry from Massey University, and then worked as an AgResearch postdoctoral fellow before becoming a scientist at AgResearch. Combining her expertise in protein biochemistry and microbial interactions in the gut environment, Sofia is focused on characterisation of the immune response for antigen screening. Since 2018, she has been conducting research on antigen-antibody interactions in the methanogen vaccine project. She consistently updates her knowledge in the field by staying informed about new research and contributing to the latest publications.