Nikki Moreland PhD, is an Associate Professor in Immunology and a Principal Investigator of the Maurice Wilkins Centre at the University of Auckland. She leads the Pathogens and Immune Response Laboratory within the School of Medical Sciences, and is also the Principal Investigator and co-leader of an initiative to accelerate Strep A vaccine development for Aotearoa New Zealand named Rapua te mea ngaro ka tau (Seeking that which is hidden). Her group investigates functional and dysfunctional immune responses in infectious diseases and use a range of approaches to understand immune-system dynamics in large cohort studies in collaboration with clinical and public health colleagues. A major focus is exploring rheumatic fever pathogenesis as a route to identifying disease biomarkers and informing the design of safe and effective Strep A vaccines.