Dr Joshua Gardner, from the Institute of Systems, Molecular and Integrative Biology, has been awarded a prestigious five-year Wellcome Early-Career Award worth £713,000. The funding will support his research into how prior exposure to viruses can affect vaccine safety and performance.
His research will focus on adenoviruses, which are common viruses that can be used to deliver vaccines, including some used COVID-19 vaccination. Joshua will investigate how pre-existing immunity to human adenoviruses impacts vaccine safety and efficacy. The aim would be to design improved versions that are less likely to trigger unwanted immune responses.
Joshua will be based within the Centre for Drug Safety Science in the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics and will work closely with leading experts Professor Dean Naisbitt and Professor Sir Munir Pirmohamed, as well as colleagues from the University’s Centre for Global Vaccine Research. Dr Gardner will also work in collaboration with researchers from Cardiff University and Vanderbilt University.
Dr Gardner said: “I’m very grateful to have been awarded this highly competitive award by Wellcome and to the team at the CDSS for providing me with the platform to develop my own research area exploring vaccine safety. We hope that through targeted viral engineering, this work has the potential to broaden therapeutic applications, improve efficacy and underpin the development of the next generation of vaccines and gene therapies.”
Professor Tony Marson, Dean of the Institute of Systems, Molecular and Integrative Biology commented: “I am truly delighted that Joshua has been awarded a Wellcome Early Career award, which is testament to him as talented young scientist and the groundbreaking work he plans to do, embedded in our world-renowned Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics.”
About Wellcome Early-Career Awards
Wellcome Early-Career Awards provide funding for early-career researchers to develop their own research identity. The scheme offers financial support to applicants to advance understanding in their respective fields, including the researcher’s salary and up to £400,000 for research expenses.