Salik Nazki

Salik is a postdoctoral immunologist currently working with Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert's group. He completed his Bachelor's in Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry (BVSc & AH) and his Master's in Veterinary Sciences (MVSc) specializing in microbiology and immunology at SKUAST-Kashmir before pursuing his PhD in PRRSV-related immunology at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Jeonbuk National University in South Korea in 2015.

Salik's research interests center on various aspects of virology and immunology, with a focus on understanding their basic and applied principles. During his PhD, he concentrated on developing a genetically stable and broadly cross-protective vaccine platform against the Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus (PRRSV) while simultaneously studying the immunopathogenesis and immunomodulation caused by emerging field strains of PRRSV in local and systemic immune systems of hosts.

After completing his PhD in 2019, Salik was appointed as a postdoctoral research scientist at the Pirbright Institute, where he successfully completed a project studying immune-related changes in poultry birds caused by immunosuppression resulting from infectious bursal disease (IBD) virus. He also investigated the effect of immunosuppression on influenza virus infection and evolution.

In 2022, Salik moved to the Pandemic Sciences Institute, University of Oxford, to work as a postdoctoral immunologist. He is currently studying the processing and presentation of T cell epitopes from nucleic acid-based vaccines, including adenoviral vectored vaccines and RNA vaccines. His work aims to assess alternative antigen designs for use in vaccine technologies and determine their impact on T cell epitope processing and presentation.