Dr. Alharbi is a Research Scientist in Virology and Vaccines, Director of Vaccine Development Unit and Director of Research Quality Management at King Abdullah International Medical Research Center (KAIMRC).
Dr. Alharbi's research lab works on vaccine development and immunological responses to infections and vaccines. He has evaluated immune responses for COVID-19 and MERS vaccines in mice, camels, and humans. He and his team has set up infrastructure, training, and policies; and conducted a phase I clinical trial for a MERS vaccine. This is the first trial of its kind in the history of Saudi Arabia.
During COVID-19, Dr. Alharbi and his team reported the only large scale national serology survey in Saudi Arabia.
Dr. Alharbi alongside the team have managed to set up a BSL-3 lab and isolated SARS-CoV-2 and used the virus to evaluate activity of anti-viral agents and chases the immune responses to COVID-19 vaccines for over a year post-vaccination, benefiting from the fact that Saudi Arabia was the 4th country in the world to administer the vaccines to its population.
Currently, Dr. Alharbi's lab is working on novel platform for vaccine development, GMP production of vaccines as well as proceeding with MERS and COVID-19 vaccine development.
