Sandy Douglas Lab Group

𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐃𝐚𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐖𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐆𝐢𝐫𝐥𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐒𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 This is a day to celebrate the incredible contributions of women in science and to inspire the next generation of female scientists. The Douglas Group is proud to support and empower women in STEM. We believe that diversity in science leads to better research and innovation.

𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐒𝐚𝐧𝐚 𝐄𝐥𝐦𝐮𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐄𝐫𝐰𝐚𝐧 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐝! Sana is our new Project Coordinator; she brings valuable experience from her previous role as a Grant Coordinator and Research Support Administrator. Seeking deeper involvement in impactful projects, Sana is excited to contribute directly and appreciates the flexibility and dynamic nature of our work. She is a valued member of our team and is enthusiastically embracing new challenges both at work and outside, recently taking up ice skating and swimming. Erwan joins us as a Post-Doctoral Scientist in Adenovirus Vectors, bringing a strong foundation in Virology with a Ph.D. in Adenovirus Genetic Engineering from the University of Witten/Herdecke. Driven by a passion for translational research in vaccine development and global health, Erwan is drawn to the Jenner Institute's intellectually stimulating environment and the opportunity to collaborate with inspiring researchers. He thrives in dynamic atmospheres.

Researchers at the Jenner Institute have highlighted a potential new strategy for rabies control policies, discovering that pre-exposure vaccines are more cost-effective than previously thought. Their findings demonstrate that it is a viable tool for policy makers to consider when deciding which approach to prioritise. Learn more 👉 https://lnkd.in/e7VT-taa

𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝗝𝗮𝗻𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟱 Adam Khan-Qureshi joined the group in 2022 as a DPhil student, bringing with him a strong foundation in Biochemistry from his MBio at the University of Warwick. During his undergraduate studies, Adam undertook a three-month research project investigating a novel plant pathogen effector and how it manipulates organelles. For his master’s thesis at AstraZeneca, he focused on a novel bispecific fragment antibody, delving into the mechanisms behind its aggregation.    Within our group, Adam’s research centres on class III fusion proteins from viruses, such as Rabies and Epstein Barr Virus. Initially, his work involved developing high-throughput screening methods to identify novel mutations by combining molecular biology tools and next-generation sequencing. Recently, Adam has shifted his focus toward structural biology, aiming to unravel antigen-antibody interactions of these fusion proteins. This new direction involves collaborations with Prof. Thomas Bowden and Dr. Robert Stass from the Department of Structural Biology, and he is excited to incorporate techniques like cryo-EM into his work in the coming months.    Adam values the group’s dynamic nature and our commitment to pushing scientific boundaries. He enjoys the lively mix of intellectual curiosity, teamwork, and social camaraderie that ensures there is never a dull moment. 

We’re delighted to announce that our latest paper on how routine childhood vaccination against rabies can be cost effective is published and available online. Rabies kills tens of thousands of people every year. Travellers from wealthy countries are recommended to be vaccinated, yet children living in areas where rabies is endemic rarely have the same opportunity. The main reason is cost, which rabies pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) having previously been modelled as not being cost effective. Instead, emergency post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) and vaccination of dogs, the main cause of transmission to humans, has been favoured. In this paper we build on previous models by making two big changes; we consider the value of lives saved by PrEP when PEP access is incomplete, and cheaper manufacturing and delivery of rabies PrEP. Rabies PrEP costs less than US$1000 per year of life saved in a range of plausible scenarios, making it cost-effective in settings with modest willingness-to-pay thresholds. Rabies PrEP is a tool policy makers should consider alongside dog-vaccination and improving access to emergency PEP. It has the potential to have the biggest impact in places where maintaining dog-vaccination levels is difficult and/or access to PEP inconsistent. This work was carried out by Adam Ritchie and Alexander (Sandy) Douglas from our team, alongside our collaborators Aronrag Meeyai and Caroline Trotter. https://lnkd.in/gC5PP6wf

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Sandy Doulgas Lab Group. We've had a busy year, with lots of work and plenty of fun mixed in along the way. From casual dinners with bad christmas jumpers to formal dinners with colleagues and friends, we've been sure to enjoy ourselves whenever we can. We said goodbye to Stanislav Pepeliaev and Jackie, Jie Chen who have moved on to their next challenge, and welcomed new members of the team. There were even visits from former group members Sofiya Fedosyuk and Carina Joe. We're looking forward to 2025 and the exciting work it will bring. Solomon English, Francisco Orliacq, Adam Berg, Alexander (Sandy) Douglas, Catherine Cherry, Jacqueline Vieira, Adam Ritchie, Paschal Apanga, Adam Khan-Qureshi, Shawkat H., Cheelsea Pereira, Rinter Kimathi, Julia Talarek, Rameswara Reddy Segireddy, Marco Polo Peralta- M.D, PhD, Faith Vinluan, Oliver Pearson, Megan Perry

STEaPP’s Policy Impact Unit have recently published a position paper which highlights how the UK can use its upcoming Industrial Strategy as a unique window of opportunity to capitalise on the potential for economic growth and increased national resilience offered by sustainable medicines manufacturing.   Anca T., VaxHub Policy Adviser, and Luís Miguel Lacerda argue that focusing on more sustainable medicines manufacturing can stimulate innovation and unlock economic growth in the life sciences sector as well as reduce the environmental impact of the pharmaceutical industry.   Key findings and recommendations include: 💡 Domestic medicine manufacturing capacity is key to the UK’s health and national security and resilience. 💊 UK has a strong base for R&D and early stages of medicines development but has not capitalised on this when it comes to establishing domestic manufacturing. UK’s medicine production volumes have fallen by 29% and 7,000 jobs have been lost since 2009. 🏭 We need dedicated infrastructure that will enable the accelerated development of new medicines and sustainable medicine manufacturing processes at scale. 🤝 The UK government should provide a joined-up policy approach that incentivises knowledge sharing and collaboration across manufacturing industries. 🏭 Regulatory authorities should be encouraged to incentivise innovation in medicine manufacturing that supports sustainability. 🤝 There is a need for industry-wide advanced recycling facilities to process recyclable waste from medicine development and manufacturing. 📣 The UK government should provide leadership and coordination on sustainability measurements and standards. For example, the UK could bring together expertise from the British Standards Institute, the Office for Life Science and the NHS, and use its global convening power to create an internationally recognised standard for measuring GHG emissions in medicine manufacturing.   Read the paper to find out more https://lnkd.in/e7mmVT6R Department of Health and Social Care, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Department for Business and Trade, NHS England, BioIndustry Association (BIA) and UK Office for Life Sciences

Today, the Lords Science & Technology Committee published a letter we have written to the Government about vaccine resilience in the UK for the next pandemic - you can read it here: https://lnkd.in/er8qcMF4 This came from an evidence session that we held with some of those involved in developing the Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine during COVID-19. What we heard from them was inspiring, but troubling - in many ways, we were lucky to be able to develop a vaccine for the pandemic, and our witnesses wanted to impress on us that we cannot trust to luck in the future. See the video clip below as our Chair, Baroness Brown, talks to Professor Catherine Green about the precarious budgeting for her facility, which is one of the few in the country that can manufacture that first batch of vaccines for early clinical trials. We have recommended that the Government needs to ensure that the UK has an vaccine manufacturing and R&D sector to protect against the next pandemic - and the best way to do this is to keep the sector active by procuring vaccines to address outbreaks across the world. Having these networks, facilities, expertise, and ongoing R&D that can snap to action in a crisis requires that we keep developing and making vaccines - it's "use-it-or-lose-it", in that sense. The Committee recommended a "peacetime vaccines taskforce" as a way to continually ensure that new vaccines are being supported and procured - and, as part of Official Development Assistance, they could be sent abroad to prevent outbreaks there. As our witnesses explained, this is a tricky area. Vaccines are not always profitable, so we cannot rely on the private sector to develop them on their own. And Governments can struggle with long-termism and measures to prevent, rather than address, crises, even when an ounce of prevention is often worth a ~gram~ pound of cure [which is what vaccination is all about!]. [ED: Thanks to Erwan for pointing out that I can't mix metric and imperial as badly as I mix metaphors.] The Committee hopes that setting up regular, at-risk vaccine procurement and strategic funding for important labs like Professor Green's on an institutional basis will ensure that we are prepared when the next crisis comes. We talked to the Science Minister, Lord Vallance, as part of this inquiry, who was of course critical to the Vaccine Task Force and UK pandemic response. We heard encouraging words around ensuring support for the UK vaccine R&D sector will continue. We will keep you posted on the response we get from the Government.

𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝗡𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒 Marco Polo Peralta- M.D, PhD joined the Douglas Group in 2023 as a Senior Scientist bringing with him a strong background in Vaccine Immunology. He obtained his medical degree in 2017 and went on to earn his DPhil in Clinical Medicine from the Jenner Institute. His doctoral research focused on characterising vaccine-induced antibody responses in humans and non-human primates. Marco is contributing to an ambitious project aiming to achieve the rapid production of adenovirus-vectored vaccine seed and clinical trial materials in under 60 days for emergency pandemic responses funded by CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations). Marco’s work in the group has deepened his expertise in bioprocessing, vaccine development and manufacturing with adenoviral vectors. He is grateful to be passionate about using accelerated vaccine manufacturing platforms to enhance pandemic preparedness and is now focused on the technology transfer of these processes to GMP manufacturing.

Megan Perry joined us 2 months ago. She is a Biochemistry Masters student excited to work within the Douglas group for the next 9 months. Her project is a preclinical evaluation of candidate Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) vaccine antigens. It has the potential to significantly impact the fight against EBV-related diseases. Megan is passionate about vaccine development and hopes to continue working in the field after completing her project.