Dr Simone Richardson

Dr Simone Richardson is a senior research scientist at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases and the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. She leads a small team within the Antibody Immunity Research Unit, focusing on cytotoxic antibody functions in vaccination and infection. Her research targets viruses such as HIV, SARS-CoV-2, cytomegalovirus, respiratory syncytial virus, and influenza, with particular attention to those that disproportionately affect children and infants.

Dr Richardson aims to engineer antibodies with enhanced capabilities for passive immunisation and to identify antibody signatures linked to vaccine efficacy to improve vaccine design. Since 2016, she has published over 42 articles in top journals including Cell and Nature Communications and serves on the review board of Frontiers in Immunology.

She has supervised multiple MSc, PhD, and postdoctoral students and her work has garnered several prestigious international awards, including the amfAR Matilde Krim and the L’Oréal Women in Science Fellowships and early career recognition from the Gates Foundation. She recently received the Meiring Naudé Medal from the Royal Society of South Africa and the Best Research Prize in the Faculty of Health Sciences. Since 2022, she has been active in the South African Immunology Society, promoting science communication and vaccine literacy.