Development of animal models to address key paradigms in dengue research

Key findings arising from Associate Professor Alonso's research into symptomatic dengue mouse models will be presented. These include the role of maternal antibodies in disease enhancement, the protective potential of anti-TNF therapy, the protective role of CD8 T cells induced by a live attenuated vaccine candidate, and the role of prME in dengue fitness and virulence.

Dr Alonso obtained her PhD degree in Microbiology and Molecular Biology from the University Claude Bernard Lyon I (France). She then continued her post-doctoral training at Pasteur Institute of Lille (France) where she developed bacterial vaccine delivery systems, followed by another 2 years at Cornell University (NY, USA) where she worked on Tuberculosis. In 2004, she was awarded the Lee Kuan Yew post-doctoral Fellowship and joined the Department of Microbiology at NUS. She was recruited as an Assistant Professor in 2007 and promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2013. For the past 15 years, Dr Alonso’s research at NUS has focused on studying the pathogenesis of Enterovirus 71 (HFMD) and Dengue virus.