Vaccines, human challenge studies and impact on AMR
11 March 2026 12.00 UK / 13.00 CET
Join ISAC’s Rapid Diagnostics and Biomarkers Working Group for a webinar exploring Vaccines, Human Challenge Studies and Their Impact on AMR. This session brings together leading experts advancing the frontiers of vaccine development through controlled human infection models. Dr Adam Dale will discuss leveraging human challenge models for pertussis vaccine development, followed by Dr Malick Gibani on human challenge models for Salmonella to accelerate vaccine innovation. The programme concludes with Dr Jennifer van Heerden, who will unpack the valuable role of controlled human malaria infection models (CHMIs) in malaria vaccine development. A must attend event for anyone interested in vaccines, infectious diseases, and the future of AMR mitigation.
PROGRAMME
1. Leveraging human challenge models for pertussis vaccine development
Dr Adam Dale
2. Human Challenge Models for Salmonella to Accelerate Vaccine Development
Dr Malick Gibani
3. The Malaria Challenge: the valuable role of controlled human malaria infection models (CHMIs) in malaria vaccine development
Dr Jennifer van Heerden
Moderator: Prof. Kordo Saeed
SPEAKER BIOS
Dr Adam Dale is an Associate Professor in Infectious Diseases and Medical Microbiology within the Southampton Controlled Human Infection Group (CHIG), University of Southampton. He is also an Honorary Consultant at University Hospital Southampton, specialising in the management of transplant-associated infections.
His research is focused on understanding the immunological mechanisms that afford protection against upper respiratory tract pathobiont colonisation, with the ultimate aim of informing the rational design of next-generation vaccines that prevent asymptomatic colonisation and transmission. A critical component of his research involves the use of controlled human infection models (CHIMs), utilising wild-type and genetically modified strains of Neisseria lactamica and Bordetella pertussis.
Outside of his work in controlled human infection, Adam contributes to the vaccine research field more broadly through collaboration with academic and industrial partners. He is a researcher-co-investigator in the Immune Memory and Mechanisms of Protection from Vaccines (IMMPROVE) consortium, holds active industrial funding from Moderna Inc. (doctoral fellowship programme), and is principal investigator for phase I vaccines trials in Southampton NIHR Clinical Research Facility.
Malick Gibani is a Clinical Associate Professor in Bacterial Vaccinology. He completed his medical training at the University of Oxford, after which he continued his clinical training in London. He later joined the Oxford Vaccine Group in the Dept of Paediatrics, University of Oxford, where he undertook a DPhil focusing on Salmonella Typhi and Paratyphi A human challenge models.
Since 2019, he has worked in the Department for Infectious Diseases at Imperial College London. His research interests focus on bacterial vaccines for AMR and pandemic preparedness, including for Salmonella, Klebsiella, Yersinia and Staphylococcus aureus. His particular expertise is in the development of controlled human infection models to accelerate vaccine development and to better understand host-pathogen interactions.
He is the PI on the Challenge Non-Typhoidal Salmonella (CHANTS) and Protection Against invasive Non-Typhoidal Salmonella projects (PAiNTS), which aims to develop a new controlled human infection model for Salmonella Typhimurium and correlates of immunity. More recently, his work has expanded to make greater use of Controlled Human Infection models across a broader range of research questions, including a growing focus on the role of the gut microbiome in colonisation and host resistance to Salmonella infection.
Jennifer van Heerden is a medical doctor and clinical research fellow at the University of Oxford. She works in the Malaria Vaccine Programme at the Draper Lab and Oxford Vaccine Group.
She is currently the lead clinician on a number of clinical trials (both in the UK and Tanzania) assessing the safety, immunogenicity and efficacy of blood-stage malaria vaccine candidates. Two of these trials (BIO-003 and BIO-005) involve Controlled Human Malaria Infections (CHMIs) or malaria ‘challenges’.
Over the last year, their team has conducted five separate malaria challenges - including both P. falciparum and P. vivax blood-stage malaria challenges, as well as setting up the first relapsing P. vivax malaria challenge study.
Prior to moving to the UK, Jennifer worked in both clinical and research settings within South Africa. In addition to malaria, her previous research has focused on HIV, tuberculosis (TB), post-TB lung disease and COVID-19. She holds a Masters in Immunology from the University of Oxford and a Diploma in HIV from the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa.
Prof. Kordo Saeed is currently working as a consultant clinical microbiologist and lead for the bacteriology laboratory at University Hospitals Southampton NHS Foundation Trust & an honorary professor at the University of Southampton School of Medicine. His interests are infections in intensive care and orthospinal & major trauma-related infections. He is the chair of the Rapid Diagnostics and Biomarker Working Group of the International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (ISAC). He has published on Infection Control, Antibiotic Stewardship, Bone and Joint Infections and Sepsis.
