Dr Yoshikazu Honda-Okubo

Dr. Honda-Okubo is a veterinarian and have a broad background in virology, immunology and molecular biology with specific training and expertise in key research areas for this application. At the Yokohama Research Center of Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. in Japan, he led the development of a human recombinant hepatitis virus vaccine as well as development of antigen/antibody detection systems. He expanded his research to molecular biological techniques to sequence viral genomes and express recombinant proteins in various expression systems. As a postdoctoral fellow at International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), he carried out immune-histological study of protozoan parasite infection in cattle. Later as a Research Scientist at ILRI, he successfully identified vaccine candidate antigens against protozoan parasite and in collaboration with other researchers generated various recombinant vaccines for cattle and produced several peer-reviewed publications. As a Senior Research Scientist at Vaxine Pty. Ltd, he has successfully established and validated murine challenge models for influenza, malaria, and shigella for testing of vaccine adjuvant candidates. He is highly experienced with immunological readouts of both humoral and cellular immune responses used in the immune-phenotyping of adjuvant candidates.