Emil Vergara
ESR 10
Project: Post-exposure vaccination against multi-drug resistant tuberculosis
Organisation/Institute: St. George’s University of London (London, UK)
Supervisor: Dr. Rajko Reljic
Emil obtained his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the University of the Philippines Los Baños. Shortly after graduation, he worked as a research assistant at the Applied Biochemistry Laboratory, Hankyong National University in South Korea on investigating the immunomodulatory properties of natural compounds. He then returned to the Philippines to teach undergraduate courses in veterinary pathology.
Currently, he is finishing an Erasmus+ Joint Master Degree in Vaccinology (Leading International Vaccinology Education) funded by the European Commission where he studied advanced immunology in University of Barcelona and Autonomous University of Barcelona, infectious and tropical disease in University of Antwerp, and vaccinology and humanities in Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 and Université Jean Monnet Saint Etienne. He is now is doing a research internship at Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (Inserm) in Lyon, France where he is working with the B and T lymphocyte biology team.
As an aspiring scientist who wants to specialize on lung mucosal immunology, preclinical vaccine development, and neglected tropical diseases, he chose to pursue a PhD studentship to work on therapeutic TB vaccine development and immunotherapeutics under the supervision of Dr. Rajko Reljic. In the future, he wants to continue working on the development of prophylactic or therapeutic vaccines focusing on respiratory pathogens and neglected tropical diseases.