\n \n 28 September 2016\n \n
\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n'Going Viral' is the first in a new series of audio podcasts. This episode, featuring Dr Sandy Douglas from the Jenner Institute, explores how we learn to use viruses to our own advantage, in fighting them with vaccines as well as harnessing them for use in understanding how the brain is connected.
\n \n\n\n \n 28 September 2016\n \n
\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \nThe University of Oxford's Professor Sir Peter Ratcliffe has won the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, one of the most prestigious prizes in medicine, for his work understanding the mechanisms by which cells sense and signal hypoxia (low oxygen levels). Hypoxia is an important component of many human diseases including cancer, heart disease, stroke, vascular disease, and anaemia.
\n \n\n\n \n 7 September 2016\n \n
\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n17-20 Oct: Clinical Vaccine Development and Biomanufacturing\r\n\r\nFrom pre-clinical testing to field trials - development and manufacture of vaccines, immunogenicity and vaccine testing in Phases I to IV .\r\n21-25 Nov: Human and Veterinary Vaccinology\r\n\r\n5 day Master's level course providing an overview of all aspects of human and veterinary vaccinology - from Edward Jenner to modern day vaccines.
\n \n\n\n \n 19 July 2016\n \n
\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \nWhile HIV is no longer the death sentence it once was, we are yet to defeat it entirely. However, a new study from Oxford University offers hope that HIV will eventually have nowhere to hide. Tom Calver spoke to Professor Lucy Dorrell (Jenner Investigator) about her work on clearing HIV from the body.
\n \n\n\n \n 19 July 2016\n \n
\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \nCONACyT will fund through its 2016 \u201cFrontiers of Science\u201d call a project submitted by Dr H\u00e9ctor Vivanco Cid of Universidad Veracruzana in collaboration with Prof Reyes-Sandoval Group, The Jenner Institute, Nuffield Department of Medicine. The study will take place in in the sate of Veracruz, which has had the highest numbers of cases of dengue fever and dengue haemorrhagic fever in Mexico in recent years, and the highest number of hospitalisations due to this disease. It is expected that chikungunya and zika viruses will become endemic in this region as well.
\n \n\n\n \n 3 June 2016\n \n
\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n(CNN) As director of the Jenner Institute, Hill is creating a well-crafted \"potion\" of ingredients which, when combined inside a vaccine, could prepare our immune system to attack biological invaders. His formulation could one day form the foundation to protect humans from a range of diseases including malaria, HIV and tuberculosis. It's being harnessed to design a new class of vaccine, unlike any other in use today, with an end goal of disease elimination. \"This is being assessed widely for use in cancer, Hepatitis C, and we've used it in Ebola and HIV,\" says Hill. \"There are 8 different diseases where [this] approach is in clinical trial.\"
\n \n\n\n \n 25 May 2016\n \n
\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \nA team led by Oxford University has identified genes that make certain children more susceptible to invasive bacterial infections by performing a large genome-wide association study in African children. Dr Anna Rautanen from Adrian Hill's research group at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, said: 'Critically, the genetic variants we have identified carry a doubled risk of developing bacteraemia when infected with the Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria. This discovery therefore provides clues in the pressing search for new ways to target the disease.'
\n \n\n\n \n 16 May 2016\n \n
\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \nRed tape is hampering scientists from developing groundbreaking GM vaccines, it is claimed. Adrian Hill, of Oxford University, said that this was holding back research. \u201cBecause the vaccine is technically a GM organism, if we\u2019re going to vaccinate someone in our clinic we need special permission, not to protect the person from the dangers of the vaccine but to protect from the potential risks of that microbe getting out and contaminating the environment,\u201d he said. This was despite the fact, he added, that it would not survive.
\n \n\n\n \n 11 May 2016\n \n
\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \nOxford spin out company Vaccitech has launched today with \u00a310m seed investment to develop a universal flu vaccine already showing promise in clinical trials. Vaccitech has raised \u00a310m from investment company Oxford Sciences Innovation to take a number of vaccines through clinical trials. Vaccitech\u2019s lead product is a \u201cuniversal\u201d flu vaccine which would work against all varieties of the virus. \u201cWe\u2019ve targeted two proteins inside the virus which do not change, even as the virus mutates the proteins on its surface,\u201d explains Adrian Hill, director of the Jenner Institute. Vaccitech is also working on vaccines to fight cancer by turning the immune system against the disease.\r\n\r\nThe Financial Times: Oxford biotech deals highlight stature of UK university spinouts.
\n \n\n\n \n 11 May 2016\n \n
\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \nIn 2014/2015, 39 women scientists working mainly in the Medical Sciences Division at the University of Oxford were interviewed with the aim of providing support to women making career decisions, by offering them the opportunity to explore a broad range of experiences shared by other women through video interviews. The women talked about many issues, including the culture of science, publishing, obtaining fellowship funding, having a mentor and Athena SWAN. Four Jenner Investigators were among those interviewed, Helen McShane, Ellie Barnes, Lucy Dorrell and Seph Borrow.
\n \n\n\n \n 3 May 2016\n \n
\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \nOn 25th April, a group of leading research networks and groups in Oxford presented to the public their latest work to combat malaria. Philippe Gu\u00e9rin (WWARN) presented alongside Dominic Kwiatkowski (MalariaGen), Katherine Battle (Malaria Atlas Project), Nick White (MORU) and Sumi Biswas (Jenner Institute), discussing their innovative research and multi-disciplinary collaborations in malaria.
\n \n\n\n \n 29 April 2016\n \n
\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \nThe 24 - 30 April is World Immunisation Week with the focus of this year\u2019s WHO campaign is \u201cClose the immunisation gap\u201d. NDM and Paediatrics spoke to Professor Calman MacLennan, Professor of Vaccine Immunology (University of Birmingham) and Jenner Investigator (Oxford), and Dr Manish Sadarangani Clinical Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Immunology at The Children\u2019s Hospital, Oxford about vaccinations and how we can \u201cclose the gap\u201d and get more people vaccinated to prevent deadly diseases.
\n \n\n\n \n 1 April 2016\n \n
\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \nProf Helen McShane and her team at the Jenner Institute, have made a discovery that could improve our chances of developing an effective vaccine against Tuberculosis.\r\n\r\nThe researchers have identified new biomarkers for Tuberculosis (TB) which have shown for the first time why immunity from the widely used Bacillus Calmette-Gu\u00e9rin (BCG) vaccine is so variable. The biomarkers will also provide valuable clues to assess whether potential new vaccines could be effective.
\n \n\n\n \n 1 April 2016\n \n
\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \nAlthough the Zika virus and other public health threats might seem more pressing, the world cannot ease up on efforts to maximize development of Ebola vaccines and prepare for the next outbreak, according to an expert panel in a report published today, \"Plotting the Course of Ebola Vaccines\". The report is produced by a team which was assembled in November 2014 by the Wellcome Trust and the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota as the Ebola outbreak heated up in West Africa.
\n \n\n\n \n 23 March 2016\n \n
\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \nThree University of Oxford teams are to begin research projects focussed on Zika after the UK government announced a series of grants to tackle the disease. Since its outbreak in Brazil last year, the Zika virus has continued to spread, primarily across the Americas. Dr George Warimwe, Jenner Institute, will study the transmission and case burden of Zika in an area of East Africa, providing vital information on how the disease spreads.
\n \n\n\n \n 18 March 2016\n \n
\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \nOn 14 March, Mr Darren Nash, Associate Head of Department (Academic Support & Finance), Professor Arturo Reyes-Sandoval, Dr Cesar L\u00f3pez-Camacho and Dr Gilberto Estrada Harris welcomed a distinguished group of guests from the British Embassy in Mexico coming with a delegation of Mexican journalists from different media outlets on a tour exploring UK\u2019s science, technology and innovation, education, business and sustainability.
\n \n\n\n \n 11 March 2016\n \n
\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \nA podcast is now available of this year's Oxford London Lecture, a lecture series which aims to connect the widest possible audience to some of Oxford's ground-breaking research. The lecture was given by Director of the Jenner Institute, Prof Adrian Hill, on the topic \"Vaccines for Ebola: tackling a market failure\", followed by a panel discussion chaired by The Times columnist, Alice Thompson.
\n \n\n\n \n 10 March 2016\n \n
\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \nProfessor Adrian Hill, Director of the Jenner Institute, warns that more than a dozen viruses pose the threat of severe outbreaks, but there are currently no vaccines to protect against them.
\n \n\n\n \n 8 March 2016\n \n
\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n8th March is International Women\u2019s Day, celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievement of women. To mark the day, Charvy Narain spoke to a woman with a significant record of scientific achievement: Professor Helen McShane. Professor McShane is a Wellcome Trust Senior Clinical Research Fellow at the Jenner Institute, and she was recently appointed the interim Deputy Head of the Nuffield Department of Medicine, the single largest department at the University of Oxford.
\n \n\n\n \n 1 March 2016\n \n
\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \nOxford University scientists have started a clinical trial to test a new vaccine against prostate cancer and are looking for volunteers to take part. The first four participants have already received this experimental vaccine at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford, and the second trial site has just been opened at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield.\r\n\r\nDr Irina Redchenko, a senior investigator on the trial from the Jenner Institute explained: \u2018Cancers can spread in the body is because the immune system does not recognise the cancer cells as foreign and so does not attack them. The right type of vaccine could help the body to attack and destroy the cancer cells.\u2019
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