BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

NAME: Rosamund E. Chapman

POSITION TITLE: Research Officer

EDUCATION/TRAINING:

INSTITUTION AND LOCATION: University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

DEGREE: BSc Micriobiology & Biochemistry (1988); Bsc Honours Microbiology (1989); PhD Microbiology (1996)

A. Personal statement

In 2005 I joined Prof. Anna-Lise Williamson’s research team, funded by SAAVI, working on the development of HIV-1 vaccines. I was employed as a Research Officer in the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine (IIDMM) at the University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa. My expertise is in bacteriology and molecular biology. I have been involved in various different projects involving the construction of vaccines. These include the use of recombinant mycobacteria (BCG), modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA), DNA and plant expression vectors. At present I am co-supervising projects on developing vaccines against Bovine Leukemia virus and East Coast Fever. The following numbers of students have graduated under my supervision: Honours (5 graduated), MSc (3 graduated, 2 currently supervising) and PhD (4 graduated, 2 currently supervising).

B. Positions and Employment

2005 to date: Research officer, Institute of Infectious Diseases and Molecular Medicine, division of Medical Virology, University of Cape Town. The development of candidate HIV-1 subtype C vaccines, East Coast Fever vaccines and Bovine Leukemia virus vaccines.

Post-doctoral scientist in the Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Cape Town. Molecular biology research into the responses of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to stress.

Post-doctoral scientist in the Department of Molecular Biology, University of Cape Town. Molecular biology research on Thiobacillus ferroxidans.

C. Selected peer-reviewed publications (in chronological order; né Powles)

Chapman R, Jongwe TI, Douglass N, Chege G, Williamson AL. 2017. Heterologous prime-boost vaccination with DNA and MVA vaccines, expressing HIV-1 subtype C mosaic Gag virus-like particles, is highly immunogenic in mice. PLoS One. 2017 Mar 9;12(3)

Jongwe T, Chapman R, Douglass N, Chetty S, Chege G and Williamson A-L. 2016. HIV-1 subtype C mosaic Gag expressed by BCG and MVA elicits persistent effector T cell responses in a prime-boost regimen in mice. PlosOne.  2016 Jul 18;11(7)

Chapman R, Bourn WR, Shephard E, Stutz H, Douglass N, Mgwebi T, Meyers A, Chin'ombe N, Williamson AL. 2014.The use of directed evolution to create a stable and immunogenic recombinant BCG expressing a modified HIV-1 Gag antigen. PLoS One. 2014 Jul 25;9(7)

Chapman, R., Stutz, H., Jacobs Jr. W., Shephard, E., Williamson, A-L. 2013. Priming with Recombinant Auxotrophic BCG Expressing HIV-1 Gag, RT and Gp120 and Boosting with Recombinant MVA Induces a Robust T Cell Response in Mice. PlosOne 8(8) e71601

Chege, G., Burgers, W., Stutz, H., Meyers, A., Chapman, R., Kiravu, A., Bunjun, R., Shephard, E., Jacobs, W. Jr, Rybicki, E., Williamson, A-L. 2013. Robust immunity to an auxotrophic Mycobacterium bovis BCG-VLP prime-boost HIV vaccine candidate in a nonhuman primate model. J Virol. 87(9).

Chapman, R., Shephard, E., Stutz, H., Douglass, N., Sambandamurthy, V., Garcia, I., Ryffel, B., Jacobs, W. & Williamson, A-L. 2012. Priming with a recombinant pantothenate auxotroph of Mycobacterium bovis BCG and boosting with Modified Vaccinia Ankara elicits HIV-1 Gag specific CD8+ T cells. PlosOne. 7(3): e32769. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0032769.

Chapman, R., Chege, G., Shephard, E., Stutz, H. & Williamson, A-L. 2010. Recombinant Mycobacterium bovis BCG as an HIV vaccine vector. Current HIV Research 8(4): 282-298

Griffin, S., Williamson, A-L. & Chapman, R. E. 2009. Optimisation of a mycobacterial replicon increases foreign antigen expression in mycobacteria. Tuberculosis 89: 225-232

Powles, R. E. & Steyn L. M. 2003. Creating nested deletions using exonuclease III. Methods Mol Biol 235. 225-231.

Ntolosi, B. A., Betts J., Zappe, H., Powles, R. & Steyn, L. 2001. Growth phase-associated changes in protein expression in Mycobacterium smegmatis identify a new low molecular weight heat shock protein. Tuberculosis. 81 (4) 279-289.

Mulder N. J., Powles, R. E., Zappe, H. & Steyn, L. M. 1999. The Mycobacterium tuberculosis mysB gene product is a functional equivalent of the Escherichia coli sigma factor, KatF. Gene 240(2) 361-370.

Powles, R. E. & Rawlings D. E. 1997. The pyruvate dehydrogenase complex of the chemolithoautotrophic bacterium Thiobacillus ferrooxidans has an unusual E2-E3 subunit fusion. Microbiology 143(7) 2189-2195.

Powles, R. E., Deane, S. M. & Rawlings, D. E. 1996.  The gene for gamma-glutamylcysteine synthetase from Thiobacillus ferrooxidans has low homology to its Escherichia coli equivalent and is linked to the gene for citrate synthase.  Microbiology 142(Pt 9) 2543-2548.

Powles, R. E., Deane, S. M. & Rawlings, D. E.  1995.  Molecular genetic analysis of a thioredoxin gene from Thiobacillus ferrooxidans.  Microbiology 141(9) 2175-2181.

D. Research Support

Strategic Health Innovation Partnerships - 2014-2017 “Novel HIV Vaccine Candidates for South Africa” Role: Co-Principal Investigator

National Institutes of Health, USA—Grant No. R21-R31 grant #AI073182-01A1 - 2008-2012 “BCG as an HIV vaccine vector” Role: Coinvestigator

National Research Foundation of South Africa – South Africa UK Day funding 2007-2009 “The development of a novel, polyepitope HIV vaccine using BCG as a vector” Role: Coinvestigator

European Commission SIXTH FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME PRIORITY LSH-2003-1.2.4-5-New improved vaccines based on genomic and proteomic information Contract no.: 005246 2007-2008 “Rational design and standardized evaluation of novel genetic vaccines” Role: Research Officer

South African AIDS Vaccine Initiative 2004-2005 “Development of Candidate HIV-1 vaccines for Southern Africa” Role: Research Officer

Innovation Funds from South African Government Department of Science and Technology 1999- 2004 “Analysis of the responses of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to stress.” Role: Post-doctoral scientist