Firdausi Qadri

Dr Firdausi Qadri, Senior Director of the Infectious Diseases Division at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b). She leads the Mucosal Immunology and Vaccinology Unit, under the Infectious Diseases Division in the planning and implementation of research related to the research priorities of icddr,b.

She is the founder of Institute for Developing Science and Health Initiatives (ideSHi). The primary focus at ideSHi is on the development of science and technology in Bangladesh and encouraging scientists to work in the filed of biomedical sciences and also by using the facilities in the ideSHi and icddr,b laboratories and through networking with other institutions in the government and private sector.

Dr. Qadri has made significant contributions to international scientific research, particularly in the field of infectious diseases with an emphasis on infections that are very common in children in developing countries. Her work includes basic and applied immunology of infectious diseases but also clinical and large field-based studies on enteric vaccines. Major contribution over the years has been made in microbiology and immunology of infectious diseases. Special interests are infections caused by V. cholerae, ETEC, Salmonella spp, Shigella spp and Helicobacter pylori. The results have produced an impact in the field of enteric diseases specifically in the area of immunological, microbiological, genetics and genomic mechanisms, diagnostics and vaccine development. Currently, she is carrying out research on seroprevalence of COVID-19, genomic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2, in-depth longitudinal immunological analyses of COVID patients and COVID vaccine effectiveness study.