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Principal areas of research
Paediatric vaccines, meningitis vaccines, the development of the immune response.
Biography
Andrew J Pollard, FRCPCH PhD, is Professor of Paediatric Infection and Immunity at the University of Oxford, Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group in the University Department of Paediatrics, Fellow of St Cross College and Honorary Consultant Paediatrician at the Children’s Hospital, Oxford, UK. He chairs the UK’s NICE meningitis guidelines development committee. He obtained his medical degree at St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical School, University of London in 1989 and trained in Paediatrics at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, UK, specialising in Paediatric Infectious Diseases at St Mary’s Hospital, London, UK and at British Columbia Children’s Hospital, Vancouver, Canada. He obtained his PhD at St Mary’s Hospital, London, UK in 1999 studying immunity to Neisseria meningitidis in children and proceeded to work on anti-bacterial innate immune responses in children in Canada before returning to his current position at the University of Oxford, UK in 2001. Current research activities include clinical trials of new and improved vaccines for children, invasive bacterial diseases in children in Nepal, studies of cellular and humoral immune responses to glycoconjugate vaccines, research on the genetic control of the human immune response and investigations on meningococcal host-pathogen interactions and development of a serogroup B meningococcal vaccine. His publications include over 200 manuscripts and books on various topics in paediatrics, and infectious diseases.
Research
Clinical Trials and Epidemiological Research Activities: The Oxford Vaccine Group
Vaccines are a key component of global public health policy and are particularly important in the defence of the health of young children. Despite the challenges of so doing, new and improved vaccines must be evaluated in the target population of infants and young children prior to licensure. The Oxford Vaccine Group has enrolled over 7000 children into clinical trials in the Thames Valley since 2001. The clinical trials undertaken in the UK since 2001 include phase IV studies of a meningitis C vaccine and a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine; a phase II study of a new pneumococcal vaccine for infants; phase II and III studies of quadrivalent meningococcal vaccines; phase II studies of a preschool vaccine; evaluation of a novel avian influenza vaccine in adults; study of different schedules for immunisation of the elderly against pneumococcal infection
Epidemiological studies have included evaluation of carriage of Haemophilus influenzae type b throughout childhood in the UK and Nepal, surveillance of invasive bacterial infections in children admitted to Patan hospital in Kathmandu. Qualitative research studies have evaluated parental views about immunization, vaccine research and influenza vaccines. The group has a particular interest in the ethics of consent in childhood and is working with the Centre for Ethics on studies evaluating the process of consent in school age children
Laboratory Research programme
The laboratory research programme has used the clinical material provided by the clinical trials group to drive a series of projects evaluating the developing immune system in the infant. The group has specifically focused on the development of B cell memory after immunization with glycoconjugate vaccines and has found correlations between the generation of memory during priming and the persistence of the immune response. A major programme is focussed on the development of a novel serogroup B meningococcal vaccine from preclinical studies through to clinical trials. The group also undertakes sero-epidemiological studies and is examining acquisition of natural immunity to various organisms in the UK and Nepal. A bank of DNA is being collected form children enrolled in vaccine trials and several studies of the genetic control of the immune response following immunisation are currently underway.
Key Publications
Pace D, Snape M, Westcar S, Hamaluba M, Yu L, Begg N, Wysocki J, Czajka H, Maechler G, Boutriau D, Pollard AJ, A new combination Haemophilus influenzae type b and Neisseria meningitidis serogroup C-tetanus toxoid conjugate vaccine for primary immunisation of infants. In Press Paediatric Infectious Disease Journal 2007
Salt PM, Banner C, Oh S, Yu L, Lewis S, Pan D, Griffiths DT, Ferry BL, Pollard AJ. Social mixing with children enhances the antibody response to a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in 1 year old infants. Clinical and Vaccine Immunology 2007 May;14(5):593-9.
Diggle L, Deeks JJ, Pollard AJ, The effect of needle size on the immunogenicity and reactogenicity of vaccines in infancy: a randomised controlled trial. British Medical Journal, 2006 Sep 16;333(7568):571. Epub 2006 Aug 4.
Snape MD, Kelly DF, Salt P, Green S, Snowden C, Diggle L, Borkowski A, Yu LM, Moxon ER, Pollard AJ. Serogroup C meningococcal glycoconjugate vaccine in adolescents: persistence of bactericidal antibodies and kinetics of the immune response to a booster vaccine more than 3 years after immunization. Clin Infect Dis. 2006 Dec 1;43(11):1387-94.
Kelly DF, Snape MD, Clutterbuck EC, Green S, Snowden C, Beverley P, Borkowski A , Moxon ER and Pollard AJ, Persistent circulating antigen-specific memory B-cells are induced by protein-polysaccharide serogroup C meningococcal conjugate vaccine but not by plain serogroup C meningococcal polysaccharide vaccine. Blood 2006;108(8):2642-7
Clutterbuck EA, Salt P, Oh S, Marchant A, Beverley P, Pollard AJ. The kinetics and phenotype of the human B cell response following immunisation with a heptavalent pneumococcal-CRM197 conjugate vaccine. Immunology, 2006;119(3):328-37
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