Bruno Douradinha
Collaborators
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Sarah Gilbert
Saïd Professorship of Vaccinology (DBE)
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David Clifton
Professor of Clinical Machine Learning
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Reshma Kailath
Adenovirus Assay Development Scientist
Bruno Douradinha
FRSSA, FRSA
Associate Professor in Vaccine Technology and Senior Group Leader in Vaccinology
Short Bio
Bruno has joined PSI as an Associate Professor in Vaccine Technology and Senior Group Leader in Vaccinology within the Emerging Pathogens Group, led by Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert. He holds a bachelors degree in Chemical Engineering and a masters degree with Distinction in Biotechnology and a PhD in Biomedical Sciences, bringing over 20 years of experience in vaccine development for Plasmodia, Streptococci, Dengue, Zika, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and HIV.
He has expertise in genetically engineered microorganisms, adenoviral, recombinant protein, and DNA vaccines, in both academic and industry settings, such as Crucell (now part of Johnson & Johnson) and Novartis Vaccines & Diagnostics (later acquired by and incorporated in the GSK group), among others. He played a pivotal role in characterising the p52- mutant Plasmodium parasite in animal models, leading to a human malaria vaccine based on a triple mutant Plasmodium falciparum p52-/p36-/sap1-, which demonstrated safety in clinical trials. His work with the Plasmodium p52-, published in PNAS, earned him the best Microbiology article award from the Instituto Bacteriológico Câmara Pestana in 2006 (Lisbon, Portugal). Bruno also contributed to Zika DNA vaccine design during the 2015/16 epidemic, collaborating with FIOCRUZ in Brazil.
Bruno has numerous publications on vaccine development, infectious diseases, microbiological assay optimisation for GMP, as well as articles on policy and society, in memoriam pieces, scientific hypotheses, and reviews. He also holds patents for novel vaccination strategies.
Bruno has also secured funding from various prestigious bodies, including EMBO, COST, FLAD, the Portuguese Ministry for Science and Education, and Fondazione Ri.MED, among others.
In 2024, due to his contributions to vaccinology, he was made both a Fellow of the Scottish Society of Arts and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, commonly known as the Royal Society of Arts.
Bruno's research aims to enhance the immunogenicity of the replication-deficient simian adenoviral vectors ChAdOx1 (used in the AstraZeneca/Oxford SARS-CoV-2 vaccine) and ChAdOx2. His ultimate goals are to achieve higher vector immunogenicity, reducing the need for reagents and consumables for a vaccine, positively impacting the environment and increasing vaccine development sustainability levels.