A vaccine research team specializing in antibody-mediated immunity and infectious disease prevention has joined the , strengthening the college’s work in global health and translational immunology.
has been appointed professor in the . He is joined by and , both associates in research in the Sather Lab, and Dr. Ifra Hassan, a postdoctoral scholar.
Sather studies antibody-mediated immunity and vaccine development for HIV-1 and malaria — two diseases that remain major global public health challenges. His laboratory seeks to understand how vaccine- or pathogen-specific B cells are triggered and to define their natural history as they mature into protective antibody responses.
Noah Sather, PhD (Photo by Natalie Preston)
The lab’s goal is to leverage those findings to design novel immunogens and vaccine regimens capable of eliciting durable, protective antibody responses. By grounding vaccine design in fundamental immunology, Sather’s research aims to advance next-generation prevention strategies.
Raappana joins the COPH after seven years studying B cell responses to HIV and malaria under Sather’s leadership. He earned a bachelor of science in bioengineering from the University of Washington and focuses on characterizing humoral immune responses at the monoclonal and repertoire level. His work contributes to rational immunogen design and vaccine development.
Andrew Raappana (Photo by Natalie Preston)
Dambrauskas brings expertise in infectious disease vaccine development and monoclonal antibody discovery. His work emphasizes designing immunogens for pathogens including HIV, malaria and COVID-19. Throughout his career, he has utilized multimerization platforms and adjuvant systems to optimize immune responses, along with high-throughput single-cell technologies and yeast display pipelines to isolate and characterize potent monoclonal antibodies.
Nicholas Dambrauskas (Photo by Natalie Preston)
Hassan brings expertise in malaria immunology and naturally acquired immune responses to Plasmodium falciparum. She earned her PhD from Ehime University in Japan and has conducted infectious disease and immunology research in Japan, Australia and Portugal. Her work focuses on understanding how naturally acquired human antibodies protect against malaria and applying these findings to support the development of next-generation malaria vaccines.
Ifra Hassan, PhD (Photo courtesy of Hassan)
Together, the team expands COPH’s capacity to conduct advanced immunological research aimed at combating some of the world’s most persistent infectious diseases while contributing to student training and mentorship.