London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

World Immunisation Week 2021

To mark World Immunisation Week 2021 from 24 to 30 April, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) Vaccine Centre is hosting a series of webinars. The theme this year is ‘Vaccines Bring Us Closer’. Each day of the week we focus on an important area of vaccine research, science and debate bringing together experts in the field. We end the week with the Vaccine Centre Annual Lecture on 30 April. 

In this event, we focus on vaccines that are currently undergoing clinical trials and are aiming to protect newborn babies from RSV and Group B streptococcus. Professor Kirsty Le Doare will discuss "Group B Streptococcus (GBS) Vaccines, an update" and Dr Fiona Culley will explore "Maternal vaccines for Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV)". 

Speakers 

Professor Kirsty le Doare, St George’s, University of London (SGUL) and Medical Research Council and Uganda Virus Research Institute and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Uganda Research Unit (MRC/UVRI and LSHTM Uganda Research Unit)

Kirsty Le Doare BA (Hons.), MBBS, PGHCE, MSc (Oxon), PhD FRCPCH is a Professor of Vaccinology and Immunology at SGUL seconded to MRC/UVRI and LSHTM Uganda Research Unit. She is also a chief investigator for the SGUL at Makerere University-John Hopkins University Research Collaboration (MUJHU) maternal vaccines and seroepidemiology studies. She is the co-chair of the Drugs for Neglected Diseases  initiative  (DNDi) maternal and neonatal health COVID19 research coalition and is a WHO scientific advisor for maternal vaccination.

She has over 10 years of experience investigating the interactions between hosts and pathogens during the neonatal period. She completed an economics degree at the London School of Economics and worked for NGOs for 10 years prior to changing track to medical research. Her MSc at Oxford, PhD and postdoctoral work at Imperial College continued her interest in understanding why some babies get very ill and die from infections in the first months of life and how we can harness protection transferred from mother to her baby via the placenta and in breastmilk. Her groups in Uganda and the UK use a variety of approaches to study GBS and other neonatal pathogens such as E. coli and Klebsiella, ranging from clinical studies and whole genome sequencing, to in vitro and in vivo models.  

Dr Fiona Culley, Imperial College London

Fiona Culley is a Senior Lecturer in Respiratory Immunology at Imperial College London. She completed her PhD at LSHTM before moving to Imperial College. Her research is focussed on respiratory inflammation and infection, particularly RSV infection and the influence of age on the immune response in the lung.

Other events taking place around this year's World Immunisation Week

• 26 April, 13.00 - 14.00 - All you want to know about recent advances in vaccine development for diarrhoea 
• 27 April, 13.00 - 14.00 - COVID vaccine passports or certification: a good or bad idea? 
• 29 April, 12.00 - 13.00 - Human challenge models to advance vaccines against respiratory pathogens 
• 30 April, 13.00 - 14.00 - Vaccine Centre Annual Lecture 2021: Dr Rino Rappuoli 

LSHTM Viral

Season 3 of the LSHTM Viral podcast is exploring vaccines and vaccinations in a COVID-19 world, from ingredients to manufacturing, and through to the realities of distribution to a global population. In each episode our experts also answer the most pressing questions from the public on the COVID-19 vaccines, so send your questions to comms@lshtm.ac.uk. LSHTM Viral is Spotify’s 13^th most popular science podcast in the UK. Subscribe now: Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Breaker, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher.

• Please note that the time listed is British Summer Time (BST)
• Please note that the recording link will be listed on this page when available