VALIDATE NETWORK - Key Persons
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- Scientific Leader / UK Health Security Agency
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- Professor of Immunology / University of Aberystwyth
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- VALIDATE Communications and Events Coordinator
Blakeley is the VALIDATE Communications and Events Coordinator, based at University of Oxford. He has previously worked in a number of roles in the education and charity sector including as a community coordinator at Humanists UK and managing commemorative events with the Royal British Legion. Blakeley works with Sam Vermaak on VALIDATE's communications and its events programme. If you have any questions relating to Events or Communications, do get in touch with Blakeley.
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- Postdoctoral Researcher / University College Dublin
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- Coordinator, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Lab
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- Professor of Pharmacology / Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research
- Professor of Pharmacology at the Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research
Mitali Chatterjee, is Professor of Pharmacology at the Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research (IPGMER), Kolkata, India. She obtained her MBBS from Calcutta Medical College, Kolkata, India in 1984, and her MSc in Medical Sciences from the Cancer Research Unit in 1989 of University of Newcastle upon Tyne Medical School, UK. In 1992, she did her MD in Pharmacology at University College of Medicine, Kolkata, India and in 2000 obtained her PhD in Immunology from the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India. She joined the University of Calcutta in 2000 and established an Immunopharmacology unit which has focussed on development of improved diagnostic and chemotherapeutic approaches against Leishmaniasis, a neglected tropical disease. In South Asia, Leishmaniasis includes a visceral form called kala-azar and has a dermal sequel called Post kala-azar Dermal Leishmaniasis (PKDL), the latter being unique to the Indian subcontinent. Importantly, in the absence of an experimental model, the responsibility of understanding the immunopathogenesis of PKDL lies squarely on the shoulders of clinical researchers. The group undertook this pertinent challenge and established that in PKDL, there is generation of a pro- parasitic, immunosuppressive milieu, which impairs the host's capacity to respond to microbial ligands. Mitali Chatterjee's group has developed a DNA based assays for diagnosis and monitoring of PKDL, and as part of the ongoing Leishmaniasis ‘active surveillance' programme in West Bengal, her laboratory serves as the nodal centre that provides information regarding parasite load, a key marker for measuring chemotherapeutic effectiveness. In 2015, she was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India and in 2017 as a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences.
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- Professor of Bacteriology / University of Southampton
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- Scientific Innovation Lead / Johnson & Johnson
Human biomarkers: can they help us to develop a new tuberculosis vaccine? Fletcher, H.A.; Dockrell, H.M.; Future Microbiol
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- Director of the Oxford NIHR Biomedical Research Centre
- Professor of Vaccinology / Jenner Institute
- VALIDATE Director
Helen McShane is VALIDATE Network Director and the Director of the Oxford NIHR Biomedical Research Centre; Professor of Vaccinology at Oxford University; Deputy Head (Translation and Personnel), Medical Sciences Division; and an Honorary Consultant Physician in infectious diseases.
Helen is a Professor of Vaccinology at Oxford University, where she has led the Jenner Institute's TB team since 2002. She has conducted clinical trials of candidate TB vaccines, developed both at Oxford and by industry collaborators, in the UK, South Africa, Uganda, Senegal and The Gambia, including the first modern efficacy trial of a candidate TB vaccine (MVA85A). As VALIDATE Director she leads the strategic and scientific direction of the Network, chairing the Network Management Board. You can read more about Helen's research interests here.
Sam is Principal Investigator in Mycobacteriology at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Her group has an interest in host-pathogen interactions, and aims to gain a better understanding of how the pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis interacts with its host to cause disease, using molecular mycobacteriology and in vivo and in vitro infection models together with data-rich methodologies. As VALIDATE Co-Director she leads the strategic and scientific direction of the Network with Helen. You can read more about Sam's research interests here.
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- Professor of Immunology / St George 's University of London
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- Senior Investigator / Scientist and Affiliate Professor / Center for Global Infectious Disease Research
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- Co - Investigator & Executive Manager, VALIDATE Vaccine R & D Network / University of Oxford
- Co - Investigator and Executive Manager
Sam is the Executive Manager of VALIDATE, based at University of Oxford. As a member of the Management Team and Network Management Board she helps plan VALIDATE's strategic direction, and she leads on operations, with responsibility for turning plans into actual VALIDATE activities, as well as being responsible for VALIDATE's financial management. She heads up the VALIDATE core staff team at University of Oxford. Managing VALIDATE from its inception in 2017, and as TB Vaccine Programme Manager at University of Oxford's Jenner Institute for seven years prior to this, Sam has extensive experience in project/programme management, research grant financial management, managing clinical trials in the UK and overseas, working with industry partners, and managing international Consortia. Sam is also a trained coach and leads the VALIDATE Early Career Researcher Career Development Network.
Do get in contact with Sam for any queries about VALIDATE. Find out more about Sam here.
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- Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Sciences / Brunel University London
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- Professor of Inflammatory Disease, Director at Manchester Collaborative Centre for Inflammation Research ( MCCIR )
Professor Tracy Hussell completed her PhD at University College London where she identified Helicobacter pylori as an aetiological agent in human gut lymphomas. After her PhD Professor Hussell moved to Respiratory Medicine at St Mary's Hospital to study immunity and pathology to respiratory syncytial virus. In 1998 she accepted a lectureship in the Centre for Molecular Microbiology and Infection (CMMI) at Imperial College. She was subsequently awarded a career development fellowship by the Medical Research Council and a Personal Chair in inflammatory disease at Imperial College London in 2006. She has developed a vibrant research group studying immune health and its deregulation in the lung. Professor Hussell is now the Director of the Manchester Collaborative Centre for Inflammation Research (MCCIR) at the University of Manchester.