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An Interdisciplinary Research Centre at the University of Cambridge
 

Vaccines and the discovery of new antimicrobial drugs are one of our most effective means for controlling infectious diseases.

All vaccines rely on one simple principle: give the immune system a head start advantage over the pathogen by teaching it to recognise the pathogen before an actual infection occurs. The immune system then forms a “memory” of the pathogen and can build defences capable of eliminating it and its associated disease during a real infection. They are known to be the safest, most effective way to prevent infectious diseases, and they have enabled the worldwide eradication of many devastating diseases like polio and smallpox. However, vaccines capable of completely protecting against a pathogen as complex as the malaria parasite or TB have never been successfully created, and many logistical and societal challenges to vaccination delivery programmes exist. Here at Cambridge, our researchers are working across disciplines to fast track the scientific discoveries to illuminate fundamental aspects of immunity and responses to infection and examine vaccine delivery and societal challenges and that will enable us to beat these deadly pathogens.

Explore Campus

Work in this area is undertaken in numerous research groups and collaborations across Cambridge, particularly in the Departments of Pharmacology, Pathology, Biochemistry, Veterinary Medicine.


PhD Student, at the Department of Veterinary Medicine
Epidemiological and Mathematical Modelling, Disease Dynamics Unit
Emergency medicine doctor
Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge
Graduate Student Researcher at MRC Biostatistics Unit
I am a medical doctor and a graduate student in Population Health sciences, specializing in Infectious Diseases.
Postdoctoral Scientist at MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
Leo James Group
Senior Research Associate, Department of Veterinary Medicine, U. of Cambridge
Principal Investigator, MRC Career Development Award
Department of Veterinary Medicine
Dr Abiyad  Baig
I am interested in studying the microbial pathogenesis, evolution and diversity using genomics and bioinformatics tools.
Dr Stephen  Baker
Department of Medicine, CITIID.
Molecular microbiologist; enteric infections in developing countries with an emphasis on Norovirus, Shigella spp. and Salmonella Typhi.
Postdoctoral Fellow, Parasites and Microbes Programme, Wellcome Sanger Institute
Molecular Microbiology, Bioinformatics, Phylogenetics, Phylodynamics, Molecular/Genomic Epidemiology, Genomic Surveillance. Sexually Transmitted Infections, Neglected Tropical Diseases, Global Health.
Dr Andrew  Blagborough
Department of Pathology
Characterization of malarial transmission and the design of anti-parasitic transmission-blocking interventions
Research Associate, Sarris Group, Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge
Research topic: Innate immunity
Research interests: Immunology, Cell Biology, Infectious Diseases
Dr Katherine  Brown
Department of Physics
Development of Therapeutics for Bacterial Infectious Diseases, including Traumatic Injury Infection and Biothreat Agents
Professor Clare  Bryant
Department of Veterinary Medicine
Innate Immunity; host recognition of infection; immunopharmacology
01223 766232
PhD student at Lee Group, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
Parasitology, drug resistance, biochemistry
Dr Chrispin  Chaguza
Wellcome Sanger Institute
Molecular epidemiology and evolution of bacterial pathogens particularly Streptococcus pneumoniae
Research Assistant at CIMR, Rayner Group
Professor Andres  Floto
Professor of Respiratory Biology
Co-Director, Cambridge Centre for AI in Medicine
Research Director and Honorary Consultant, Cambridge Centre for Lung Infection, Royal Papworth Hospital
Honorary Consultant, Respiratory Immunology service, Cambridge University Hospitals
Co-Director, Cambridge Infectious Diseases Interdisciplinary Research Centre
Dr Andrew James Grant
Department of Veterinary Medicine
Host-pathogen interactions and the molecular basis of virulence.
Dr Ewan  Harrison
Career Development Fellow - UKRI Innovation Fellowship, at Wellcome Sanger Institute
Senior Research Associate, Department of Medicine
Honorary Fellow in the Department of Public Health and Primary Care
Genomics of inflamation and immunity. Staphylococcus aureus in humans and animals.
Professor at Department of Pharmacology
Sheild Chair of Pharmacology
Protein Technologies for Therapeutic and Vaccine Design
 Sarah  James
Part Time Research Associate, Department of Zoology
 Ellis  Kelly
PhD Candidate
Indole signalling in E. coli.
Research Associate at Cambridge Institute for Medical Research
 Rebecca  Kinsley
Postdoctoral Scientist
Vaccine development
 Pietro  Mastroeni
Department of Veterinary Medicine
Professor of Infection and Immunity
Bacterial pathogenesis, immunology, vaccines and antibiotics.
PhD candidate
Department of Biochemistry
Structure-guided drug discovery to find novel therapies for leprosy
Postdoctoral Scientist at CRUK Cambridge Institute
Developing molecular diagnostics, including NGS for infectious disease identification and epidemiological studies - particularly healthcare-associated infections.
Deployment of rapid molecular diagnostics in resource-limited settings.
 Ana   Mosterin
Research associate and administrator in the Pathogen Evolution group, Department of Zoology
Influenza, vaccines
Postdoctoral Scientist, MRC Toxicology Unit
Interests: investigating design, synthesis, and toxicity of RNA-based/mRNA/LNP therapeutics
Professor Elizabeth  Murchison
Professor of comparative oncology and genetics
Research Associate at CITIID – Department of Medicine
PhD Student at Baker's lab, Department of Medicine/CITIID, University of Cambridge
Monoclonal antibody therapies for the treatment of Acinetobacter baumannii
PhD Student, Smith group, Department of Zoology
I use computational methods to study vaccines against evolving viruses (SARS-CoV-2, Influenza)
Professor Sharon  Peacock
Director, COVID-19 genomics UK Consortium (COG-UK) and Professor of Public Health & Microbiology
 Arun   Prasad Pandurangan
Senior Research Associate
Department of Medicine
University of Cambridge
 Taufiq   Rahman
Structure and ligand-guided development of novel small molecule leads against druggable microbial proteins
Postdoctoral Fellow at Marcus Lee Group, Wellcome Sanger Institute
Transcriptional regulation of drug resistance in Plasmodium falciparum
Professor  Julian   Rayner
Cambridge Institute of Medical Research (CIMR)/Department of Medicine
High throughput approaches to understand the biology of malaria parasites and prioritise new drug and vaccine targets
Programme coordinator for the Cambridge Centre for Physical Biology
DAMPT, University of Cambridge
Visiting Fellow, Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge
 Renata  Schaeffer
Assistant Director for Biological Sciences & EU Matters, RO
Research support for School of Biological Sciences and EU funding
Dr. Yoshiro  Shiba
Postdoctoral Scientist
Innovation in drug discovery
Dr Alex  Smith
Department of Veterinary Medicine
Molecular microbiologist using glycoengineering approaches to develop vaccines to prevent bacterial disease in chickens
Dr Hannah   Sore
Antibiotic drug discovery and diagnostic developement
Research Associate, Hollfelder Group, Department of Biochemistry
Synthetic biology and microfluidics
PhD Student at Department of Pharmacology
Structural and Functional Studies on Multidrug Efflux Pumps
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Biochemistry
I work on the structural biology of plastic degrading enzymes
Senior Regulatory & Programme Manager at Department of Medicine
Dr Caroline  Trotter
Professor of Global Health, Department of Veterinary Medicine
Director of Cambridge-Africa, Department of Pathology
Honorary Epidemiologist at UKHSA
Fellow at Hughes Hall
Dr Sina   Tureli
Research Associate, Department of Zoology
Mathematical modelling of biological systems, dynamical systems
Dr Hendrik W.  van Veen
Professor of Molecular Pharmacology (grade 11)
Focus on Antimicrobial Resistance research
01223-765295
Senior Research Associate
Department of Biochemistry
Senior Lecturer in Microbiology, Anglia Ruskin University
Dr Tracy  Wang
Animal pathogens, vaccine, antimicrobial resistance and functional genomics
Professor Jeremy  Wells
Department of Veterinary Medicine
Host-microbial interactions, mucosal immunology, bacterial infection and immunity, intestinal-health related research.
Research Fellow, Department of Genetics
PhD Student at CITIID – Department of Medicine