Profile of the month

Biograpgy

Dr Alonso obtained her PhD degree in Microbiology and Molecular Biology from the University Claude Bernard Lyon I (France) in 1998. She subsequently moved to Pasteur Institute of Lille (France) for a 4-year post-doctoral training where she developed bacterial vaccine delivery systems. Dr Alonso then spent 2 years at Cornell University (NY, USA) as a Research Fellow 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.

Research Interest

Our research interests revolve around host-pathogen interactions through the identification of viral determinants and host factors that drive the fitness and virulence of RNA viruses, including dengue virus, Zika virus, and Enteroviruses. The lab has established relevant symptomatic pre-clinical models, which has led to many collaborations and partnerships with academic and private sectors both locally and internationally. In collaboration with Monash University (Australia), we have also pursued the development of a promising dendritic cell targeting vaccine platform to protect against influenza, dengue and coronaviruses.