Amy Flaxman

I have always been interested in translational research – how can what I am doing at the bench have an impact at the bedside? After studying Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Bath, I worked for several years in academia and industry building my laboratory skills base. I came to the Jenner Institute and undertook my DPhil studies investigating the impact of S. aureus colonisation and how this impacts vaccination. The aim was to study how pre-existing exposure to the bacterium can impact on subsequent vaccination against it.

For my post-doctoral research I have worked on both pre-clinical studies developing vaccines for outbreak pathogens, such as Ebola, and clinical trials for pre-erythrocytic Malaria and outbreak pathogens, including MERS and Ebola.

I am continuing my research in Teresa Lambe’s group working on immune responses to the Oxford ChAdOx1-nCoV vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 currently in Phase III clinical trials. I lead the lab team carrying out antibody testing post-vaccination. Here, I am interested in the differences in antibody responses induced over time with different doses of vaccine, in different age groups and how this changes with administration of a booster vaccine. We are also interested in cross-reactive immune responses to other circulating coronaviruses which cause mild disease.