Prof. Muzlifah Haniffa is a dermatologist with a research interest in immunology. Her research programme is focused on understanding the functional heterogeneity of human mononuclear phagocytes, a family of white blood cells comprising dendritic cells, monocytes and macrophages, which initiate and regulate immune responses. She has used functional genomics and comparative biology to align the human and mouse mononuclear phagocyte networks. Muzlifah's research goal is to understand how mononuclear phagocytes regulate tissue homeostasis, immunity upon vaccination and their role in disease pathogenesis. This knowledge is essential for the development of new strategies to manipulate host immune response to improve vaccination and immunotherapeutic strategies.
Muzlifah was a previous recipient of a Wellcome Trust Intermediate Clinical Fellowship (2010-2015) and an Action Medical Research Training Fellowship (2005-2008). Her work has been recognised by a number of awards including the Lister Institute Research Prize (2016), the European Society for Dermatology Research LEO Pharma Research Foundation Silver Award (2013), the British Society for Investigative Dermatology Young Investigator Award (2012) and Sue McCarthy Prize (runner-up) for the UK Medical Research Society Young Investigator Award (2009).
Muzlifah is an adjunct investigator at Singapore Immunology Network and Institute of Medical Biology, A*STAR, Singapore.