Farha Naz, PhD

Farha Naz earned her Ph.D. from the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Basic Sciences (CIRBSc), Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), New Delhi, India, where she focused on human kinases, particularly MARK4. Her research interests were in protein biology, computational drug discovery, and structural biology. Currently, she is a Research Scientist at the University of Virginia, where her work centers on Type 2 immunity, Clostridioides difficile infection, and vaccine development.

Farha has received several prestigious fellowships and awards, including GATE, CSIR-JRF, and the ICMR postdoctoral fellowship, in recognition of her academic and research excellence. She has authored multiple scientific publications. Her three most recent publications are:

1. Naz F, Petri WA. Host Immunity and Immunization Strategies for Clostridioides difficile Infection. Clin Microbiol Rev. 2023 Jun 21;36(2):e0015722. doi: 10.1128/cmr.00157-22. Epub 2023 May 10. PMID: 37162338; PMCID: PMC10283484.

2. Naz F, Hagspiel N, Xu F, Thompson B, Brett Moreau G, Young M, Herbein J, Fox CB, Petri WA, Abhyankar MM. Enhanced immunogenicity of a Clostridioides difficile TcdB vaccine adjuvanted with a synthetic dual-TLR ligand adjuvant. NPJ Vaccines. 2025 Feb 18;10(1):33. doi: 10.1038/s41541-025-01075-3. PMID: 39966390; PMCID: PMC11836405.

3. Naz F, Uddin MJ, Hagspiel NM, Young MK, Tyus D, Boone R, Brown AC, Ramakrishnan G, Rigo I, Fleming C, Madden GR, Petri WA Jr. IL33 protects from recurrent C. difficile infection by restoration of humoral immunity. J Clin Invest. 2025 Mar 6:e184659. doi: 10.1172/JCI184659. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40048372.