Dr Joel Meyer

Research

I am the clinical research fellow for the tuberculosis vaccine programme at the Jenner Institute. The safety, immunogenicity, and efficacy of our new TB vaccine, MVA85A, is currently being assessed in healthy human volunteers in both the UK and Africa. My Doctorate of Medicine project at the University of Oxford aims to explore some novel aspects of tuberculosis vaccinology. How do the intradermal and systemic routes of vaccination compare? Is inhalation of vaccine MVA85A through a nebuliser a feasible alternative route of administration? Can M. bovis BCG, the current licensed vaccine against tuberculosis, be used as controlled deliberate intradermal challenge to evaluate vaccine effectiveness?

I am addressing these questions through a series of phase I clinical trials and as such my work includes planning and conducting trials, recruiting, screening and following up volunteers, and performing immunological analyses of human tissue samples. In addition I spend a proportion of my time working in a clinical capacity on the intensive care unit and I also coordinate an educational programme for trainee doctors.