Kevin Cissy Nabukeera

Kevin Cissy Nabukeera is a Structural biologist and MSc Bioinformatics graduate from Makerere University, with expertise spanning epitope identification, computational biology, and rational vaccine design for both infectious diseases and cancer. At ACE-Uganda, she contributes to characterizing the mutational landscape of Plasmodium falciparum as part of the AIMaR Project, investigating how genetic variation shapes protein structure and function with direct implications for antimalarial drug resistance and the long-term efficacy of malaria vaccine candidates. Her MSc research on epitope prediction for breast cancer vaccine design stands as a notable achievement in her early career. The work identified 15 strong candidate vaccine targets and found that high expression of the target protein is associated with an approximately 11% improvement in breast cancer patient survival. This work has been featured by Google DeepMind, and she is taking these targets forward to experimental validation, marking a significant step from computational prediction toward potential clinical relevance. Her broader research interests centre on epitope mapping and prediction as a foundation for in silico vaccine design, work she is building toward validated, Africa-relevant vaccine candidates.