Prof Alison Elliott
Professor of Tropical Medicine
Alison Elliott is theme leader for Vaccine Research at the MRC/Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) and LSHTM Uganda Research Unit and Professor of Tropical Medicine at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. She leads the NIHR Global Health Group on Vaccines for vulnerable people in Africa, and the NIH Tropical Medicine Research Center the "Uganda multidisciplinary schistosomiasis research center". From 2008-2022 she was director of the Makerere University – UVRI Centre of Excellence for Infection and Immunity Research and Training.
Affiliations
Centres
Teaching
Alison's main contribution is through collaborative research capacity strenthening in Uganda. In 2008 she established the Makerere University-Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) Centre of Excellence for Infection and Immunity (MUII), harnessing international partnerships: LSHTM was a lead partner, and MUII was a founder-member of Cambridge Africa. Focussing on immunology and bioinformatics, MUII developed laboratories at Makerere Univerity and at the Uganda Virus Research Institute, and supported the development of a Makerere Master's degree in Immunology and Clinical Microbiology, a UVRI internship programme which has supported over 1600 students, and a fellowship programme which, together with follow-on programmes, has supported over 70 Masters, PhD, post-doctoral and group-lead scientists.
Research
She became interested in parasitology and research in Africa as an undergraduate and this interest was encouraged further by an elective in The Gambia. After completing medical training she joined the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and, during the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, undertook studies on the interaction between tuberculosis and HIV infection in Zambia. An infectious diseases fellowship in Denver, Colorado, followed, providing an opportunity to learn about management of drug resistant tuberculosis and about laboratory immunology. This enabled her to plan and conduct subsequent clinical-immuno-epidemiological studies. Since 1997 she has been based in Uganda at the MRC/UVRI and LSHTM Uganda Unit. Current interests focus on the effects of chronic, immunomodulating infections (such as helminth infections) on immune responses to vaccines and on infectious and allergic disease incidence in children in Uganda; and on research capacity strengthening in Africa.
Selected Publications
