Wednesday, 6th May Asia-Pacific Vaccine and Immunotherapy Congress 2026

8:45am - Opening Address by Prof Lisa Ng, Executive Director, A*STAR Infectious Diseases Labs
8:50am - Welcome Remarks by Dr Lisa Ooi, Assistant Chief Executive Biomedical Research Council, A*STAR

• The search for mechanism in Long Covid and other post-acute infection syndromes - Daniel Altmann
• Pro-Resolving Molecules in Viral Infections: A New Paradigm in Host-Directed Therapy - Vivian Costa (Litwnski)
• From sensing to silence - dsRNA pathways and ADAR1-driven immune evasion - Polly Leilei Chen

• Personalized Vaccines for Activating and Suppressing T Cell Responses - Olaf Rotzschke
• Vascular–Immune Axis in Metabolic Liver Disease–Associated Vasculopathy - Christine Cheung
• T cell characterisation and immune monitoring tools & Ankyrons® – Next generation target binding and detection - WEN ZHE CHUA

• Reprogramming Endogenous Immune Suppression: TRAIL-Dependent Control of Myeloid Regulatory Function in Chronic Vascular Inflammation - Sian Cartland
• Linking Functional and Clonotypic Features of T Cell Responses to HIV and Malaria Vaccines - Evan Newell
• Therapeutic HBV vaccine efficacy through ancestral mismatched T cell epitopes - Antonio Bertoletti

• Neurovascular interactions: from mechanisms to clinical trials - Katerina Akassoglou
• Harnessing the Power of iPSC-Derived NK Cells for Cancer Immunotherapy - Jonathan Loh
• Virus-specific T cell therapy in Australia - Corey Smith

• Detectable DENV-specific T cell immunity despite absent serological responses in individuals from dengue-endemic regions - Joey Lim
• Autoreactive PD1⁺, TIGIT⁺ CD4⁺ T cells and CD4⁺ TemRA in peripheral blood predict remission outcomes in response to disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs in early rheumatoid arthritis - Jia Yi Hee
• A CRISPR/Cas9 knockout screen of naïve human T cells identifies a key epigenetic target for improved CAR T cell efficacy in solid cancers - Marit J van Elsas
• An in vitro model of ventilator-associated pneumonia reveals heterogeneous responses of multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii to the host environment - Wei Hao Lee
• Insect-specific Yada Yada virus chimeric vaccines protect against chikungunya and Ross River virus-induced arthritis  - Agnes Carolin
• Investigating the role of OLFML2A in the differential clinical pathology of CHIKV and ONNV - Neve Qian Ning Lok
• Targeting STAT3 hyperactivation enhances the efficacy of clec9A-targeting vaccine in chronically immunosuppressed triple-negative breast cancer - Ethan Trethowan
• Copper chelation reprograms neutrophil function to potentiate anti-GD2 immunotherapy in neuroblastoma - Jourdin RC Rouaen
• Leveraging DC activation to overcome tumor heterogeneity in CAR T cell therapy - Cheok Weng Chan
• LGR5-targeting CAR-T Cells as a Colorectal Cancer Immunotherapy.  Phase I Clinical Trial Update. - Shaun McColl

• Optimizing Dengue Booster Schedules across Monsoon Cycles Integrating Rainfall Anomaly Indices, NEA Vector Surveillance, Secondary Serostatus, and Plasma CXCL10 Dynamics Using Augmented Synthetic Control and Causal Forests - Falakh Abdillah
• Hepcidin-Linked Functional Iron Restriction and Weakened Vaccine Seroconversion in Hemodialysis Quantified by Reticulocyte Hemoglobin Equivalent, TSAT, IL-6, and CRP Using Time-Updated Joint Modeling and Mediational G-Formula - Falakh Abdillah
• Alphavirus replicon particle expressing IL-12 reprograms tumor-associated macrophages and neutrophils and induces anti-tumor immunity - Wataru Akahata
• An Epitope-Based Peptide Vaccine Targeting Influenza A Elicits Robust Immune Responses and Induces Protection In a Mouse Model - Bandar Alosaimi
• A Novel Bacterial Membrane–Derived Immunotherapeutic Platform for HPV-Associated Cancers: Preclinical Evaluation and Translational Implications - Muneera Anwer
• Evaluation of IgG subclasses response against CSP, induced by RTS,S vaccine in children living in three regions of Cameroon  - Ndongo Behalal Ariel Aurore Vera
• Therapeutic HBV vaccine efficacy through ancestral mismatched T cell epitopes - Akshay Binayke
• Characterising the Transcriptomic Response to Interferon and Infection in European Domestic Ferret Respiratory Tissues Using Long-Read RNA Sequencing - Lachlan Coin
• mRNA Vaccine Against Japanese Encephalitis Virus Genotype IV Protects Against Lethal Infection - Abigail L. Cox
• Identification of antigen-specific T cell receptors (TCRs) via scRNA-seq analysis for TCR-T cell therapy - Yirong Dai
• Emergence and impact of influenza A(H3N2) subclade K viruses in Australia in late 2025 - Clyde Dapat
• A Multivalent mRNA Vaccine Strategy for Protection Against Epstein–Barr Virus and EBV-Associated Diseases - Vijayendra Dasari
• Mathematical Modeling of Optimal Booster–Primary Vaccine Allocation Under Waning Immunity, Coverage Inequities, and Supply Constraints Across Asia-Pacific Health Systems to Maximize Population Health Impact - Rifaldy Fajar
• Machine Learning–Driven Heterogeneous Graph Surveillance for Early Vaccine Safety Signal Acceleration and Clinically Interpretable Multisystem Phenotype Discovery - Rifaldy Fajar
• mRNA-based engineering for flexible ‘off-the-shelf’ allogeneic T cell therapy - Shan He
• Effect of time-of-day vaccination on the antibody response to mRNA and protein COVID-19 vaccine in adults - Rachel Higgins
• Porphyromonas gingivalis adhesion protein Mfa1 enhances anti-cancer effect of anti-PD-L1 antibody by activation of immunity - Eunseo Jeong
• Quantum-inspired model predicts NKG2A or NKG2C binding of HLA-E-loaded peptides - Jeong Yeon Kim
• T cells in a drop: Rapid T-cell monitoring in infectious diseases - Nina Le Bert
• Exploring the immunological basis of differential pathology in CHIKV and ONNV infections using ex vivo organoid models and single cell transcriptomics - Hyeyoung Lee
• Nodavirus Capsid-Derived Virus-Like Particles: A Platform for Multivariant SARS-CoV-2 RBD Vaccine Development - Jia Xian Lee
• FimA from P. gingivalis elicits anti-cancer immunity by stimulation of Toll-like receptor 4 - Minhyuk Lee
• Human neutralising monoclonal antibodies against Hendra and Nipah viruses - Wen Shi Lee
• Combining single cell RNA sequencing and gene expression signatures to characterize potent adoptive T cell immunotherapies - Ben Leung
• A Dual-Targeting CAR T-Cell Strategy for Breast Cancer Incorporating Viral and Tumour Antigens - Xiang Li
• Immunogenicity and efficacy over 12 months following a fourth dose of a bivalent mRNA or protein-based COVID-19 vaccine: A randomised controlled trial in Australia - Paul Licciardi
• Whole Blood Assay Detection of Virus-Specific T Cell Responses in a Nipah Outbreak–Affected Community Cohort 28 Years Post-Infection - Yvonne Jing Mei Liew
• SNAP- Tag–Based Recombinant Photoimmunotherapeutic Agents for the Selective Detection and Killing of Light- Accessible Melanotransferrin- Expressing Melanoma and Triple- Negative Breast Cancer - Suzanne SHM MAGAGOUM
• Climate Variability and Acute Respiratory Infections in Children: A Retrospective Study from Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo - Bel Makanda
• Tetravalent  dengue chimeric virus vaccine delivered to the skin by high-density microarray patches raises potent neutralising antibodies in mice. - David A Muller
• Fractional BNT162b2 boosters induce durable immune responses after non-mRNA priming in Mongolia: a randomised controlled trial. - Eleanor Frances Georgina Neal
• Thermal Instability Exposure Gradients and Vaccine Breakthrough Clusters in Mountainous Districts Integrating Logger Variance, Transport Delay Duration, and Neutralizing Antibody Geometric Mean Titers via Causal Forests and TMLE - Dimas Fajar Prasetyo
• School-Focused Tuberculosis Prevention Strategy Ranking Vaccine Candidates by BMI-for-Age Z Score, IGRA Baseline and Conversion, Household Crowding, Classroom Ventilation Proxy, and Absenteeism Trends via Mediational G-Formula, Doubly Robust Learning, and Policy Search - Dimas Fajar Prasetyo
• Mathematical Modeling of Personalized Immunodynamics Digital Twins to Infer Protective Thresholds and Optimal Booster Timing After Seasonal Influenza Vaccination in Adults - Prihantini Prihantini
• Mendelian Randomization Identifies Causal Interferon and Inflammatory Immune Pathways Driving COVID-19 Vaccine Breakthrough and Severe Disease Risk - Prihantini Prihantini
• Tumor Gastric Mucosal Systemic Inflammatory Axis Mapping Using Kyoto Gastritis Score, Helicobacter pylori Endoscopic Signatures, Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio, and Week-4 ctDNA Decline in Checkpoint-Treated Gastric Cancer Through Time-Updated Joint Survival Modeling - Ayuni Kemala Safira
• Resource-Light Vaccine Effectiveness Estimation in Sentinel Clinics Integrating Syndromic Severity Scores, Rapid Antigen Positivity Timing, and Targeted Serology Panels Using Test-Negative Design With Doubly Robust Transportable Modeling - Ayuni Kemala Safira