I am an epidemiologist trained in infectious disease epidemiology and vaccine research with experience of pre-licensure, post-licensure vaccine trials and post-introduction surveillance and evaluation projects.

My PhD research documented best practice in the introduction of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine delivery in 46 low- and middle-income countries and included a post-introduction evaluation study in Tanzania. During this time, I was based at the Mwanza Intervention Trials Unit for 2 years and aided the rapid set up of a Phase 1 Ebola Vaccine trial during the West African epidemic. My first post-doc position was as a london-based coordinator of the larger EBOVAC project at LSHTM, which included two different phase 2 vaccine trials in Sierra Leone of the two-dose Ad26.ZEBOV, MVA-BN-Filo Ebola vaccine regimen.

Since July 2018, I have been based at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kenya leading a phase 4 trial assessing whether fractional doses of Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccines (PCV) elicit non-inferior immunogenicity and effects on carriage as full doses. During the COVID-19 pandemic I led some of the serosurveillance for SARS-CoV-2 in Kenya and contributed to a household study of SARS-CoV-2 transmission. In collaboration with partners at the UVRI/MRC & LSHTM unit in Uganda, COMAHS in Sierra Leone and INRB in DRC, we obtained funding to conduct a mixed-methods evaluation of how the COVID-19 pandemic affected utilisation and provision of childhood vaccinations and other primary healthcare services in the three countries and we conducted longitudinal serosurveillance for SARS-CoV-2 among healthcare workers.

I currently supervise two PhD students who are assessing the relationship between PCV coverage and carriage, and the relationship between carriage and invasive pneumococcal disease in Ethiopia and DRC. I continue to be interested in improving our understanding of transmission of infectious diseases and our measurement of host susceptibility , in order to develop and use vaccines more effectively to control transmission and disease.