Summary
Fadil Bidmos obtained a BSc degree in Cell Biology and Genetics from the University of Lagos, Nigeria before moving to the University of Leicester, UK where he successfully completed MSc and PhD degrees in Molecular Genetics.
His research has focussed on the areas of phase variation of bacterial surface antigens, meningococcal carriage studies and preclinical vaccine development. Highlights include the first in vitro demonstration of the link between DNA repeat tract length and gene expression in Campylobacter jejuni (Bayliss et al., 2012); and elucidation of the effect of the adaptive immune response to carriage, when present, on meningococcal genetic diversity (Alamro et al., 2014). His doctoral research included an investigation into the contributions of two iron-acquisition systems to meningococcal virulence using an ex vivo human whole blood model and the vaccine candidacy of these systems (Bidmos et al., 2015). He has also successfully optimised and applied advanced tools in the cloning of human monoclonal antibodies (hmAbs) to the discovery of meningococcal vaccine candidate antigens (Bidmos et al., 2018).
He is a recipient of the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) Career Development Award (2019 - 2024) and his current interests are in the development of cost-effective bacterial vaccines using advanced approaches such as Reverse Vaccinology 2.0 (RV 2.0) and in vivo glycoengineering. Ongoing research also includes studies utilising advanced hmAb cloning tools to assess the breadth of the adaptive immune response to: experimental human challenge; bacterial vaccines; disseminated infection (specifically in childhood diseases); and autoimmunity.
He has supported and continues to support learning of undergraduate and postgraduate students including those from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. He has lectured on the 4th year Paediatric Infectious Diseases module and tutored several Problem-based learning groups in the Department. He was awarded Fellowship of the UK Higher Education Academy (FHEA) in 2016 in recognition of his teaching standards.
Publications
Journals
Siris S, Gladstone CA, Guo Y, et al., 2023, Increasing human monoclonal antibody cloning efficiency with whole-cell modified Immunoglobulin-Capture Assay (mICA), Frontiers in Immunology, Vol:14, ISSN:1664-3224, Pages:1-15
Bidmos F, 2022, Applying big data to childhood vaccination in Africa., Lancet Infect Dis, Vol:22
Siris S, Gladstone CA, Guo Y, et al., 2021, Isolating Pathogen-Specific Human Monoclonal Antibodies (hmAbs) Using Bacterial Whole Cells as Molecular Probes., Methods Mol Biol, Vol:2183, Pages:9-18
Books
Bidmos F, Bossé J, Langford P, 2022, Preface