Rate My Professor Zabeen Lateef

Dr. Zabeen Lateef holds a PhD from the University of Otago, completed in 2011 with a thesis titled 'Functional characterisation of orf virus chemokine binding protein,' supervised by Stephen Fleming, Margaret Baird, and Andrew Mercer. She also earned an MSc from the University of Otago, investigating the effect of orf virus interleukin-10 on murine dendritic cells. Her doctoral and postdoctoral research was conducted in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology within the School of Biomedical Sciences. In 2008, she received a PhD Student prize from the Otago Medical School Research Society.

Lateef's research focuses on viral immunomodulators, particularly chemokine-binding proteins and other factors encoded by parapoxviruses such as orf virus and bovine papular stomatitis virus. Her studies explored how these proteins inhibit inflammatory monocyte and dendritic cell recruitment, antigen presentation, and migration in skin inflammation models using mice, sheep, and horses. She contributed to work on virus-like particle vaccines, transcriptomic analysis of norovirus proteins, and cutaneous inflammatory responses to thermal burns. Key publications include 'Orf virus-encoded interleukin-10 inhibits maturation, antigen presentation and migration of murine dendritic cells' (Journal of General Virology, 2003), 'Orf Virus-Encoded Chemokine-Binding Protein Is a Potent Inhibitor of Inflammatory Monocyte Recruitment in a Mouse Skin Model' (Journal of Virology, 2009), 'Virus-like Particle Vaccines: Immunology and Formulation for Clinical Translation' (Expert Review of Vaccines, 2018), 'Deletion of the Chemokine Binding Protein Gene from the Parapoxvirus Orf Virus Reduces Virulence and Pathogenesis in Sheep' (Frontiers in Microbiology, 2017), and 'The Cutaneous Inflammatory Response to Thermal Burn Injury in a Murine Model' (International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2019). Her publications have garnered over 530 citations. Following her postdoctoral fellowship, Lateef served as Senior Analyst in the University of Otago Project Management Office from 2018 to 2020. She currently works as Senior Strategic Adviser in the Pacific Development Office at the University of Otago.