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Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization

Dr. Anna Lacasta completed her PhD in 2013 at the Universitat de Barcelona and the Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentària – Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal (IRTA-CReSA), Barcelona, Spain, where her research focused on the development of vaccines against African swine fever (ASF).

Following her PhD, she joined the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Nairobi, Kenya, as a postdoctoral fellow, working on vaccine development against East Coast fever (ECF), a neglected parasitic disease of cattle. She was promoted to Scientist in 2017 and Senior Scientist in 2022, leading research on the development of subunit vaccines for neglected livestock diseases, with a particular emphasis on African swine fever and East Coast fever.

In July 2026, Dr. Lacasta joined the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) at the University of Saskatchewan as a Principal Scientist. Her research aims to develop safe and effective vaccines against African swine fever through a multidisciplinary approach that integrates studies of virus–host cell interactions to identify novel vaccine antigens, computational antigen discovery, and the identification of immune correlates of protection.

Dr. Lacasta has extensive expertise in African swine fever research, spanning vaccine development, immunology, virology, and high-containment infectious disease research. She has extensive experience working in a variety of laboratory environments, including Biosafety Level 3 and 3+ (BSL-3/BSL-3+) facilities.

Research Interests:

  • Cell-virus interactions
  • Immune correlates of protection
  • Subunit vaccine development
  • Disease control