Professor Kate Seib

Kate Seib is a molecular microbiologist with expertise in bacterial pathogenesis, vaccine discovery, and development. She is a Professor and National Health and Medical Research Council Leadership Fellow at Griffith University’s Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics, where she also serves as Associate Director (Research).

Dr Seib’s research focuses on understanding host-pathogen interactions and on developing and evaluating vaccines and therapeutics for bacterial pathogens. She played a key role in the development of the 4CMenB vaccine for meningococcal serogroup B during her time at Novartis Vaccines in Italy. She is a global leader in gonorrhoea vaccine development, addressing the urgent threat posed by antimicrobial resistance and the lack of effective vaccines for sexually transmitted infections.

She currently leads clinical trials investigating the cross-protective potential of 4CMenB against gonorrhoea and collaborates with international partners to develop a world-first gonorrhoea vaccine. She also contributes to mathematical modelling studies to predict vaccine impact and inform implementation programs. Her contributions to global health policy include serving on the WHO STI Research Priority Setting Technical Advisory Group (2021–2024), participating in WHO consultations on gonorrhoea vaccine development and infection modelling, and contributing to Preferred Product Characteristics (PPC) and Vaccine Value Profile (VVP) documents for a gonorrhoea vaccine.