Dr Virginie Rozot joins CIDRI-Africa

CIDRI-Africa recently welcomed Virginie to the ranks of Principal Investigators. She is a Research Officer at the South African TB Vaccine Initiative (SATVI).

Virginie brings a rare combination of skills and experience to CIDRI-Africa: she is a certified biotechnology technologist and holds both a biotechnology engineering diploma and a PhD. Using these skills, she developed and optimised the first CyTOF2 Mass Cytometry platform on the African continent. The platform has been used to perform deep immuno-phenotyping and functional assessment of peripheral blood leukocytes, to analyse broncho-alveolar lavage samples, and recently, to study immune responses to TB in tissues derived from post-mortem sampling.

Her research interests include the TB host-pathogen relationship as well as subsequent immunopathology, with a focus on translating immunological findings into clinical practice. She is currently responsible for scientific and operational oversight of laboratory activities for two trials of the MTBVAC live-attenuated vaccine, one in adults and one in new-borns. She will perform similar duties for the MTBVAC phase 3 trial starting in 2022 which aims to assess vaccine efficacy in approximately 7000 new-borns.

Virginie was recently awarded a Wellcome Leap grant for her research on “multi-omics, multiscale and correlative ultrastructural profiling of human post-mortem lymph nodes and blood across tuberculosis disease states”; the project aims to elucidate the role of lymph nodes in the containment or spread of TB disease using an arsenal of state-of-the-art immunological, microscopy and microbiological approaches. Ultimately, this study will directly inform TB vaccine design and vaccination strategies.

Virginie received her initial qualifications in France: she holds a Baccalaureate with honours and a BSc equivalent advanced technologist certificate from Lycee Jules Ferry in Cannes, and an engineering diploma/MSc degree from Polytech Marseille. She then completed her PhD in the Laboratory of Allergy and Immunology at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland before moving to South Africa to join SATVI for her postdoctoral fellowship in 2013.