Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

Accept all cookies Reject all non-essential cookies Find out more

Andrew J Pollard

Andrew J Pollard

Research groups

Sir Andrew J Pollard

Ashall Professor of Infection & Immunity

Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group

  • Consultant in Paediatric Infectious Disease at Oxford Children's Hospital
  • Fellow of St Cross College
  • Chair of the UK Health Department's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation

The Oxford Vaccine Group

The mission of the Oxford Vaccine Group (OVG) is to improve human health through design, development, testing and implementation of vaccines, with a particular focus on childhood immunisation.

We led the international clinical trials of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, Chadox1 nCoV19, which was authorised for use first in the UK in December 2020 and is now distributed globally, building on 30 years of experience in clinical development of vaccines at OVG with our network of talented global collaborators. We have previously conducted pivotal studies of vaccines for other outbreak threats including H5N1 avian influenza (bird flu), H1N1 pandemic influenza (swine flu) and Ebola.

Our research has included work on design of vaccines for meningococcus, plague, and Q fever and early phase clinical development of vaccines for meningococcal disease, plague, Ebola, respiratory syncytial virus, influenza typhoid, paratyphoid and SARS-CoV2. 

Vaccines are a key component of global public health policy and are particularly important in the defence of the health of young children. Our research has led to national and international policy recommendations about the use of vaccines for capsular group B and C meningococcus, quadrivalent (ACWY) meningococcal vaccines, pneumococcal conjugate vaccines, a preschool booster vaccine; H1N1 influenza vaccines. We have developed a human challenge model of typhoid and used it to test a new typhoid conjugate vaccine in the UK, leading to global policy recommendations for use of the vaccine by WHO. We went on to assess the burden of disease in South Asia and Africa and then coordinate clinical trials of the vaccine in Nepal and Bangladesh, which showed the huge impact of typhoid vaccines in reducing disease in low income settings, winning the University of Oxford's Vice Chancellor's award for innovation in 2020. The typhoid vaccine is now being rolled out to protect children in affected countries. 

We have a major collaboration with Patan Hospital in Kathmandu, where we have studied serious bacterial infection of children and conducted research with our local collaborators that has supported introduction of Hib and pneumococcal vaccines in the country, and continued surveillance will describe the impact of the new programmes in the country. We are currently evaluating immunisation schedules in Nepal and Uganda to provide evidence on optimised approaches to immunising babies in low income settings.