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Professor Sarah Gilbert to give 2024 UCL Prize Lecture in Life and Medical Sciences on 'Vaccine development during and after the pandemic'.
The UCL Prize Lecture in Life and Medical Sciences is a prize awarded annually by UCL since 1997. The prize lecture has become one of the pre-eminent series on contemporary science in Europe and the annual lecture provides an opportunity to debate and celebrate important scientific advancements.
At the start of each academic year, staff and students in Life and Medical Sciences are able to nominate their scientific ‘hero/heroine’ and a Committee of senior professors makes the final selection.
We are delighted to announce that the next UCL Prize Lecture in Life and Medical Sciences will be given by Professor Sarah Gilbert, discussing 'Vaccine development during and after the pandemic'.
In 2020, vaccine developers found themselves building large, multidisciplinary teams to solve the problem of how to protect the world against a virus that had only just been identified and was causing widespread devastation. Drawing on extensive collective experience, assisted by prioritisation of funding, availability of research and clinical facilities and the acceleration of regulatory review, multiple vaccines were licensed and rolled out across the world in record time.
This lecture will discuss how that was possible, what vaccine research is now needed, and what the prospects are for a faster response next time.
Professor Sarah Gilbert, DBE, FRS, FMedSci
Sarah Gilbert is a Professor of Vaccinology in the Pandemic Sciences Institute at Oxford University. She works on viral vectored vaccine development, with projects on influenza, Nipah, MERS, and Lassa. Working with colleagues on the Old Road Campus in Oxford, she is able to take novel vaccines from design through GMP manufacturing to clinical development, with a particular interest in the rapid transfer of vaccines into GMP manufacturing and first in human trials. She was the Oxford Project Leader for ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, also known as Vaxevria/Covishield, which was estimated to have saved 6.3 million lives in its first year of use.
Programme:
5:00pm – Welcome and Introduction
5:05pm - Lecture and Q&A session
6:25pm - Closing remarks
6:30pm – Reception, South Cloisters
7:30pm - Close
Details:
Wednesday 13th November 2024, 5 - 7:30pm GMT
Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre, Wilkins Building, UCL, Gower Street London WC1E 6BT
All are welcome to join in-person or virtually.
We are extremely grateful to UCL alumnus, Dr Sanjeev Kanoria, Chairman and Founder of Advinia Health Care Ltd, for his great generosity in supporting this lecture.
Should you have any further questions, please do not hestiate to contact us by emailing events@ucl.ac.uk.