Fikadu Tafesse

Fikadu Tafesse is a Senior Professor at Oregon Health & Science University. His research focuses on immunology, medical virology, and infectious diseases, with a particular emphasis on SARS-CoV-2 biology, immune responses, and vaccine development. Recent breakthroughs include developing nanobody-based lateral flow assays for point-of-care diagnostics and mapping SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid function using nanobodies. His work also explores lipid–protein interactions in viral life cycles, notably tracing sphingolipid metabolism and identifying a critical signaling role for diacylglycerol in phagocytosis of *M. tuberculosis*. He has pioneered integrated methods for profiling lipid–protein interactions and established the Lipid Interactome, an open-access platform. His international collaborations span virology and lipidomics, advancing both fundamental immunity research and translational diagnostic tools.