''VAX-SHIELD'' Center of Pathogen-Chronic Linkage & Vaccine Impact Surveillance
Leaders
The PI is Adjunct Professor (Docent) Frank Adusei-Mensah (Ph.D, Ph.D).
The ‘VAX-SHIELD’ Group at UEF seeks to redefine vaccines not merely as tools for acute infection control, but as long-term modifiers of chronic disease trajectories. By leveraging Finland’s world-class national registries, our research will investigate the “infectious origins/ linkages” of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and quantify how routine immunizations reduce the lifelong burden of major chronic diseases including Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), Dementia, Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) and cancers.
The Research Problem
While the acute impacts of infections are well-documented, the “long-tail” of pathogen exposure—for example how chronic inflammation from shingles (VZV) or influenza triggers neurodegeneration and arterial plaque instability—remains an untapped frontier in public health. There is a critical knowledge gap regarding the heterologous and secondary protective effects of vaccination on late-onset chronic conditions.