Ugwu’s research seeks to understand how the immune system modulates the outcome of viral infection. It examines the correlates of protective immune response to viral infections such as Lassa Fever virus, SARS-CoV-2, and other endemic viral diseases in West Africa. Findings will be vital for vaccine and therapeutic design, production of diagnostics, and to inform public health policies. Ugwu has vast experience in setting up, training and supervising standardised immune assays such as binding antibody ELISA, virus pseudo type neutralization assay, ELISpot, Luminex multiplex ELISA, cell culture, flow cytometry, western blot, polymerase chain reaction and single-cell RNA sequencing, and can perform all of these assays in both BSL2 and 3 containment facility. He has published and reviewed scientific journals on the immunology of infectious diseases and published the first Lassa immune correlate data generated in-country, demonstrating that both symptomatic survivors and their asymptomatic contacts produce binding and neutralizing antibody responses and T-cell responses that are cross-reactive across different LASV lineages.
