Desy Kristinan studies microbiology and immunology at the Virginia Commonwealth University.

Desy is a permanent teaching staff at the faculty of medicine of the Universitas Cenderawasih in Jayapura, Papua.  She earned her bachelor’s degree in medicine in 2006 and professional degree in medicine in 2009 from the Universitas Cenderawasih. She worked as a general practitioner at several public health service centers in remote areas in Papua.  One of her responsibilities was to promote preventive health cares, including the prevention of HIV infections, malaria and TBC. Her main interests are developing vaccinations of infectious diseases, especially HIV, malaria and TBC, and conducting research to fight HIV infections. Since immunology is a basic science in developing vaccines for the cure for HIV infections, she is pursuing a master’s degree in this field.

After her Fulbright master’s degree award, Desy plans to continue her full-time teaching at the Universitas Cenderawasih. Further, she would like to conduct research on new vaccines and work together with the government to develop vaccinations to decrease the prevalence of infectious diseases, such as HIV, Malaria and TBC.