Nick Edwards

Graduating with a BSc in Biology from Portsmouth in 1986, I have worked in both industry and academia and was a secondary school teacher for 3 years. I have been working in and around Oxford in biological research since 1994 in a variety of roles, from Technician, to HIV related molecular biology, to Drosophila genetics, to cancer drug discovery, before joining The Jenner Institute as an RA in molecular virology for Sarah Gilbert, some 16 years ago. Working on aspects of a variety of projects, including Flu, TB, Malaria, adenoviral vector development (including ChAdOx1) and coordinating some of the more specialised QC activities for many clinical grade vaccines used in different Jenner vaccine trials, I became a senior research assistant. I also spent a lot of time developing and running the qPCR monitoring for Malaria Vaccine challenge studies, as part of many Jenner clinical trials since 2009. This included the recently licenced malaria vaccine candidate R21, which is still in Phase III trials in Africa, but which has now been approved for use by the WHO. Like many other researchers at The Jenner Institute, The Oxford Vaccine Group and elsewhere, I was also part of the massive effort to develop, and perform the many assays required as part of the urgent clinical trials on the Oxford-Astra Zeneca vaccine against COVID during 2020-2021, something I am very proud to have played a small part in.

My varied background at The Jenner and elsewhere, has given me accumulated experience in many aspects of research and lab management. This has been invaluable in organising the move of the Gilbert group, as part of the Pandemic Sciences Institute, to our current base in the new IDRM building and I am pleased to be continuing in my role as Lab Manager and safety advisor for Dame Professor Sarah Gilbert’s team.