Gilbert Glago, Ph.D. Candidate
I graduated from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (Kumasi, Ghana) with a degree in Biological Sciences. In 2023, I entered the Ph.D. program at Virginia Commonwealth University and joined the Marconi lab. My research is focused on leptospirosis, the most common zoonotic infection worldwide. Leptospirosis is a significant health concern in humans, companion animals, and livestock. All commercially available Leptospira vaccines are bacterins and they are only available for use in veterinary medicine. A shortcoming of bacterin vaccines is that they do not convey broad protective efficacy. Regarding diagnostics, current tests for leptospirosis are labor-intensive and expensive. The goal of my research is to develop broadly protective next-generation chimeric-epitope-based vaccinogens and diagnostic antigens for leptospirosis.