Dr Fatme Mawas
Dr Fatme Mawas joined NIBSC in 1997 after completing an MSc in Medical Microbiology (1986) at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and a PhD in Immunology (1995) at King’s College London. She is currently a group leader for the Haemophilus and streptococcal laboratory in the Division of Bacteriology. She has over 30 years’ experience in biomedical research with 24 years’ experience at NIBSC on quality control testing of conjugate vaccines and assays development.
Her group has been responsible for the preparation and evaluation of various WHO and non-WHO reference standards for use in the development and standardisation of various physico-chemical and immunological assays. This includes polysaccharide and human serum standards for Haemophilus influenzae b (Hib) in addition to various reference standards and reagents for Streptococcus agalactiae or Group B Streptococcus (GBS), as part of the GBS consortium project funded by the BMGF.
The control and standardization work of the group has always been underpinned by research funded by internal and external grants. Her current research interest lies in investigation into novel vaccine candidates for GBS and for Streptococcus pyogenes or Group A Streptococcus (GAS), needle-free delivery systems for mucosal immunisation (topical, oral and sublingual) and vaccine stability, in collaboration with various academic partners and vaccine manufacturers.
Recent publications
Nathan Palmer; Yajun Tan; Manolya Saydam; et al. Recombinant Protein D from Haemophilus influenzae Induces Mouse Bactericidal Antibodies Against Typeable and Non-Typeable Haemophilus influenzae, which Partially Protect Infant Rats Against Serotype b Bacteraemia. Vaccin Res Open J. 2020; 2(1): 1-9.
Syed M. A. Zaman, Stephen R. C. Howie, Magnus Ochoge, et al. Impact of routine vaccination against Haemophilus influenzae type b in The Gambia: 20 years after its introduction. J Glob Health, 2020; 10 (1): 010416.
Hannah Cole, Donna Bryan, Lorna Lancaster, et al. Chitosan nanoparticle antigen uptake in epithelial monolayers can predict mucosal but not systemic in vivo immune response by oral delivery. Carbohydrate Polymers, 2018; 190: 248–254.
Manolya Saydam, Woei Ping Cheng, Nathan Palmer, et al. Nano-sized Soluplus® polymeric micelles enhance the induction of tetanus toxin neutralising antibody response following transcutaneous immunisation with tetanus toxoid. Vaccine, 2017; 35:2489-2495.
Huynh Hong, Krisztina Hitri, Siamand Hosseini, et al. Mucosal Antibodies to the C-terminus of Toxin A Prevent Colonization of Clostridium difficile. Infection & Immunity, 2017; 85(4):e01060-16.
Paul Matejtschuk, Chinwe Duru, Kiran Malik, et al. Use of thermogravimetric analysis for moisture determination in difficult lyophilized biological samples. American Journal of Analytical Chemistry, 2016;7 (3): 260-265.
Fatme Mawas, Karena Burkin, Thomas Dougall, et al. International collaborative study for establishment of the 2nd WHO International Standard for Haemophilus influenzae type b polysaccharide. Biologicals 2015; 43(6): 492-503.
Manolya Saydam, Peter Rigsby & Fatme Mawas. A novel Enzyme-Linked Immuno-Sorbent Assay (ELISA) for the quantification of total and free polysaccharide in Haemophilus influenzae b -tetanus toxoid conjugate vaccines in monovalent and combined vaccine formulations. Biologicals 2014, 42: 29-33.