Zi Wei (Wendy) Teo

I am a DPhil student in the Interdisciplinary Bioscience DTP programme funded by the BBSRC. As malaria parasites have a complex life cycle and sophisticated immune evasion strategies, my work in the Draper Group focuses on developing multivalent virus-like particle (VLP) and mRNA vaccines targeting multiple stages of the malaria life cycle.

Prior to my PhD, I completed BSc Biochemistry at Imperial College London, during which I undertook a placement year at GSK working on the use of viral vectors for cell and gene therapy. To pursue my interest in infectious disease and vaccinology, I completed MSc Virology at Imperial College, where I undertook a 7-month research project aiming to enhance mRNA vaccine expression by optimizing construct design and testing different modified bases.