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Clinical models and trials

Clinical models Clinical trials are necessary to make sure new vaccines are safe and effective but are increasingly costly. Imperial is focused on more efficient ways to test vaccines while applying the knowledge gained from these trials to further understand and improve them.

Vaccines need to be tested to make sure they are safe and effective. In every case, this must ultimately be done in people. Increasingly, the costs and risks of the large clinical trials required are limiting the speed at which we can develop effective vaccines and make them available.
Imperial is highly focused on early-stage clinical trials in which new vaccines are tested for safety and ability to stimulate immune responses. Conducting these studies safely and efficiently helps to accelerate the development of new vaccines. Furthermore, understanding of how vaccines used in clinical trials are working allows us to go back and continually improve them, informing us about aspects of the pathogen; human immunology; and effectiveness of different delivery methods.
Imperial is also at the forefront of experimental medicine strategies to drive forward vaccine development using controlled human infection models. Here, volunteers are deliberately infected with pathogens, including influenza, rhinovirus, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and malaria, allowing us to investigate human immunology in unprecedented detail.

Dr Sonya Abraham
Senior Research Physician

Dr Andrew Blagborough
Research Fellow

Dr Christopher Chiu
Clinical Senior Lecturer

Dr Graham Cooke
Reader in Infectious Diseases

Dr Victoria Cornelius
Senior Lecturer in Clinical Trial Statistics

Professor Andrea Crisanti
Professor of Molecular Parasitology

Dr Gavin Donaldson
Reader in Airway Disease

Professor Christl Donnelly
Professor of Statistical Epidemiology

Dr Ilaria Dorigatti
Lecturer/Sir Henry Dale Fellow

Professor Stephen Durham
Professor of Allergy and Respiratory Medicine

Dr Jill Gilmour
Professor of Practice

Professor Nicholas Grassly
Professor of Infectious Disease & Vaccine Epidemiology

Dr Carolina Herrera
Senior Research Fellow

Dr Nesrina Imami
Reader in Immunology

Professor Sebastian Johnston
Asthma UK Clinical Chair

Professor Beate Kampmann
Professor of Paediatric Infection and Immunity

Dr Kirsty Le Doare
Clinical Senior Lecturer in Paediatric Diseases

Dr Paul McKay
Senior Research Fellow

Dr Simon Nadel
Consultant in paediatric intensive care

Professor Peter Openshaw
Clinical Consul for the Faculty of Medicine

Dr Katrina Pollock
Clinical Lecturer

Professor Robin Shattock
Chair in Mucosal Infection and Immunity

Dr Roger Tatoud
Honorary Senior Research Officer

Professor Jonathan Weber
Acting Dean of the Faculty of Medicine

Professor Jadwiga Wedzicha
Clinical Chair in Respiratory Medicine

Professor Robert Wilkinson
Professor in Infectious Diseases

General enquiries

Clinical Senior Lecturer
Dr Christopher Chiu

vaccine.network@imperial.ac.uk
+44 (0)20 8383 2301