The Science of COVID

Professor Dame Linda Partridge FMedSci FRS, Director, Institute of Healthy Ageing, University College London

Linda Partridge works on the biology of ageing. Her research is directed to understanding the mechanisms by which healthy lifespan can be extended in laboratory model organisms and humans. Her work has focused in particular on the role of nutrient-sensing pathways, such as the insulin/insulin-like growth factor signalling pathway, and on the role of diet.

She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Royal Society's Croonian Prize Lecture, and was honoured with a DBE for Services to Science in 2009. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Academy of Medical Sciences and a foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is Director of the Institute of Healthy Ageing at UCL and the founding director of the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne, Germany.

Sir John Irving Bell GBE FMedSci FREng FRS

Professor Sir John Bell GBE FRS is Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University. He served as President of the Academy of Medical Sciences from 2006 to 2011 and chaired the Office for the Strategic Coordination of Health Research until 2017. As a Rhodes Scholar (1975-78), Sir John undertook his medical training in the UK and then went on to Stanford University, returning to the UK in 1987. His research interests are in the area of autoimmune disease and immunology where he has contributed to the understanding of immune activation in a range of autoimmune diseases. In 1993, he founded the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, one of the world’s leading centres for complex trait common disease genetics. In 2001, he was appointed non-executive director of Roche Holding AG and in 2008 he joined the Gates Foundation Global Health Advisory Board which he has chaired since 2012. In December 2011, Sir John was appointed one of two UK Life Sciences Champions by the Prime Minister. He sits on the board of Genomics England Limited and chairs its Science Advisory Committee. He was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to medicine, medical research and the life science industry. In August 2017, the UK Life Sciences Industrial Strategy, written by Sir John, was published. The report, written in collaboration with industry, academia, charity, and research organisations, provides recommendations to HM Government on the long-term success of the life sciences sector.

Professor David Nabarro, Imperial Institute of Global Health Innovation and Special Envoy of WHO Director-General on COVID-19

David Nabarro is Chair of Global Health at Imperial College London and teaches living systems leadership through the social enterprise 4SD. He supports WHO on COVID-19 responses and is Senior Advisor to the United Nations on Food Systems.  He worked in the UN System between 1999 and 2017 with responsibilities for food security and nutrition, the Sustainable Development Agenda, Climate Action, as well as responses to Ebola Virus Disease and preparedness for Influenza Pandemics.

Professor Özlem Türeci, BioNTech

Prof. Özlem Türeci, M.D., Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of BioNTech, is a physician, immunologist, and cancer researcher with translational and clinical experience. Türeci has helped lead the discovery of cancer antigens, the development of mRNA-based individualized and off-the-shelf vaccine candidates and other types of immunotherapies which are currently in clinical development. Türeci leads the clinical development of BioNTech’s “Project Lightspeed,” the company’s successful effort to develop and distribute an mRNA-based vaccine against COVID-19, a historic achievement completed in less than one year. Türeci previously served as CEO and Chief Medical Officer of Ganymed Pharmaceuticals AG, which she co-founded with Ugur Sahin and Christoph Huber. The company was acquired by Astellas in 2016. She is also a professor for Personalized Immunotherapy at the University Medical Center Mainz and the Helmholtz Institute for Translational Oncology Mainz (HI-TRON) and currently serves as President of the Association for Cancer Immunotherapy (CIMT) in Germany. She is a recent recipient of the German Sustainability Award, among other notable recognitions. Türeci is married to Prof. Ugur Sahin.

Professor Edward Holmes FRS, University of Sydney, Australia

Eddie Holmes is an ARC Australian Laurate Fellow and Professor at the University of Sydney. Prior to that it was an NHMRC Australia Fellow at the University of Sydney, which he joined in 2012. Eddie received his undergraduate degree from the University of London (1986) and his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge (1990). Between 1993-2004 he held various positions at the University of Oxford, including University Lecturer in Evolutionary Biology and Fellow of New College. He was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA) in 2015 and of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2017. In 2017 he won the New South Wales Premier’s Prize for Science and Engineering – Biological Sciences and in 2020 he won the overall New South Wales Premier’s Prize for Science and Engineering. In 2021 he received the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science.

Professor Wendy Barclay, Imperial College London

Current position: Action Medical Research Chair in Virology, Imperial College London.

After graduating from Cambridge University, Wendy’s postgraduate study was conducted at the Common Cold Unit in Salisbury.  Following postdoctoral appointments at the University of Reading and then Mount Sinai Medical Centre in New York, she returned to the UK and set up her research group to study influenza viruses.  In May 2007 she moved to Imperial College London where she is now the Head of Department of Infectious Disease.

Her research has been focussed on the mechanisms by which viruses can cross from animal sources into humans to cause new pandemics, and strategies to prevent and control pandemic emergence.

During the COVID pandemic Wendy has been a member of SAGE, advising the UK government around the science of the newly emerged virus. She was awarded a CBE for services to virology in the New Years Honours list 2022. 

Professor Stanley Perlman, University of Iowa

Dr. Perlman received his Ph.D. in Biophysics from M.I.T., Cambridge, Massachusetts and his M.D. from the University of Miami, Miami, Florida. He was trained in Pediatrics and Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts. He is a member of the VRBPAC of the FDA and the COVID-19 Advisory Committee of the ACIP (Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices).

His current research efforts are focused on coronavirus pathogenesis, including virus-induced demyelination and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and COVID-19. His laboratory has developed several novel animal models useful for studying pathogenesis and evaluating vaccines and anti-viral therapies. His studies are directed at understanding why aged patients and mice developed more severe disease than younger individuals after infection with SARS-CoV or SARS-CoV-2 and also on why there is a male predominance in patients with more severe disease after infection with SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV or SARS-CoV-2. He and his colleagues demonstrated that transduction of mice with an adenovirus expressing the human receptor for MERS-CoV, DPP4, rendered them sensitive to infection, providing the first rodent model useful for studying MERS. Similar approaches have been used to develop several mouse models for COVID-19. Among other topics, his research is now focusing on the loss of sense of smell (anosmia) and taste (ageusia) observed in patients with COVID-19. 

Dame Kate Bingham, SV Health Investors

Kate Bingham is Managing Partner at SV Health Investors and a board member of the Francis Crick Institute, and has worked in the biotech and life sciences sectors for 30 years. Her investments have led to the launch of six drugs for the treatment of patients with inflammatory and autoimmune disease and cancer.

In May 2020, Kate was appointed Chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce reporting to the Prime Minster to lead UK efforts to find and manufacture a COVID-19 vaccine on a six-month engagement, stepping down as Chair in December 2020. On December 8 2020 the UK started COVID-19 vaccinations - the first Western country to do so. The Vaccine Taskforce helped place the UK at the leading edge of the international effort to fight the pandemic through the development of clinically safe and effective vaccines.

As Chair of the Vaccine Taskforce in 2020 she led a team of world-class experts from across industry, science, academia, funding, regulators, logistics and government with the shared purpose of procuring and manufacturing COVID-19 vaccine/s as rapidly as possible. 

Professor Sir Andrew Pollard FMedSci, Oxford Vaccine Group, University of Oxford

Professor Pollard is Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group in the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Oxford and an honorary consultant paediatrician (infectious disease and immunology) at Oxford Children’s Hospital. He received a knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2021 for services to Public Health.

His research includes the design, development and clinical evaluation of vaccines including those for typhoid, meningococcus, Haemophilus influenzae type b, pneumococcus, plague, pertussis, influenza, rabies, coronavirus and Ebola. His work on typhoid supported the WHO prequalification of a new typhoid conjugate vaccine and WHO recommendations for its use in countries with a high burden of disease. He was the chief investigator for the clinical trials of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in 2020 in 24,000 participants in UK, South Africa and Brazil, which led to authorisation of the vaccine for use in more than 180 countries with over 2.5 billion doses distributed by 2022. He has supervised 37 PhD students and his publications includes over 500 manuscripts and books on various topics in paediatrics and infectious diseases. He chairs the UK Department of Health and Social Care’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, was a member of WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (2016-2022). He chaired the European Medicines Agency scientific advisory group on vaccines (2012–2020). He received the Bill Marshall Award of the European Society for Paediatric Infectious Disease (ESPID) in 2013, the ESPID Distinguished Award for Education and Communication in 2015 and the Rosén von Rosenstein medal in 2019 awarded by the Swedish Paediatric Society and the Swedish Society of Medicine. He was elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2016 and is an NIHR Senior Investigator. 

Dr Tonya Villafana, AstraZeneca

Dr. Tonya Villafana has dedicated her career to developing vaccines and medicines against some of the most difficult infectious diseases and sought to improve global health through significant contributions spanning the public, non-governmental and private sectors. In her current role as Vice President, Global Franchise Head, Vaccine & Immune Therapies at AstraZeneca, Dr. Villafana has led the accelerated late-stage development of Vaxzevria (COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca), working closely with the University of Oxford, health authorities, the US government, US National Institutes of Health and COVAX (a partnership between CEPI, Gavi, WHO and UNICEF), to enable broad and equitable access to the vaccine around the world. This complex development program has enabled supply of more than 2.6 billion doses in more than 180 countries around the world in just 20 months. 

During her 13 years with AstraZeneca, Dr. Villafana has led late-stage development for a number of vaccine and monoclonal antibody infectious disease programs including nirsevimab, a novel monoclonal antibody for the prevention of RSV disease in all infants. From 2011-2013, she was seconded to the World Bank and served as the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) World Bank Fellow. In this role, Dr. Villafana supported the Global Medicines Regulatory Harmonization Initiative with a focus on strengthening regulatory systems in Africa and co-authored the Bank’s position on Non-Communicable Diseases for the 2011 UN High Level Meeting on NCDs. Prior to joining AstraZeneca, Dr. Villafana was Director of Portfolio Management at the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI), where she had oversight of MVI’s vaccine candidate portfolio. She served as Chair of MVI’s Portfolio Management Committee and was a member of the RTS malaria vaccine team (GSK’s Mosquirix, which received positive scientific opinion from the EMA), leading teams for PATH in Tanzania and Gabon. From 2001-2006 Tonya was the Site Director of the HIV Vaccine Initiative at the Botswana Harvard School of Public Health AIDS Initiative Partnership for HIV Research and Education in Gaborone, Botswana, where she established clinical sites to conduct the first HIV vaccine studies in the southern African nation, in collaboration with the US NIH HIV Vaccine Trials Network. While in Botswana, she served on the Botswana National HIV Vaccine Committee collaborating with local and international institutions including WHO, the Debswana Mining company and Botswana Police Service.

Dr. Villafana has served on several important scientific committees and advisory boards including the Malaria Clinical Trials Alliance, International Society of Vaccines and the NIH Integrated Preclinical/Clinical Vaccine Development Program.  She has worked closely on global health initiatives with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, PAHO, WHO, IFPMA, and UK Development Agency for International Development.  She was appointed a Fellow of the International Society of Vaccines in 2021.

She received a PhD in immunology from Weill Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences and an MPH from Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Villafana is committed to developing novel vaccines and drugs to prevent diseases in the most vulnerable populations around the world.

Professor Chris Molloy, CEO, Medicines Discovery Catapult

Chris Molloy has a 30-year international board and executive career across a unique range of life sciences R&D disciplines. 

His career began in preclinical research at Glaxo, where he was closely involved with the industrialisation of high throughput discovery.  In 2004 he moved to Asia as COO of MerLion Pharmaceuticals, a Singaporean biotech that developed into an award-winning multinational anti-infectives R&D biotech.  Chris then ran corporate development for the global informatics firm, idbs during which time it won a Queens Award for Enterprise, became a Fast-track 100 company, and the first UK firm to develop a stratified medicine software platform using real-world health data.  Chris spent three years as CEO of the RSA Group, the global life science executive search specialist, before in 2016 becoming the founding CEO of the Medicines Discovery Catapult: the national centre for innovation in drug discovery.  During its first five years the MDC has leveraged its Innovate UK grant by fourfold, worked with over 150 UK companies and assisted the discovery of UK drug assets worth over £1bn.  During the pandemic Chris was the founding Director of the Lighthouse Labs - the largest diagnostics project in UK history - and chaired the industry-governmental consortium that increased UK lateral flow manufacturing capacity by twenty-fold.

Chris is the non-executive chairman of Thriva – a pioneer in at-home diagnostics; Exploristics and NorthWest EHealth: two UK tech companies using Real World healthcare data to improve clinical development.  He chairs the IP Advisory Committee for the Association of Medical Research Charities and the Industry Advisory Board for Manchester’s Biomedical Research Centre & Health Innovation Manchester.  Chris is a Member of the Institute of Cancer Research and holds an honorary chair at the University of Manchester.

Professor Sharon Peacock CBE FMedSci, Professor of Public Health and Microbiology, University of Cambridge; Director, COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium (COG-UK)

Sharon Peacock is currently Professor of Public Health and Microbiology at the University of Cambridge; Executive Director of the COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) consortium; and a Non-Executive Director on the board of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. She has raised around £60 million pounds in science funding, published more than 500 peer-reviewed papers, and has trained a generation of scientists in the UK and elsewhere. Sharon is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, and an elected Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). In 2015, she received a CBE for services to medical microbiology, and in 2018 she won the Unilever Colworth Prize for her outstanding contribution to translational microbiology. Sharon was recently awarded the MRC Millennium Medal 2021.

Dr Ruth March, AstraZeneca

Ruth March is an experienced Board member, senior industry leader and scientific investment advisor with experience in biopharmaceuticals, diagnostics, genomics and precision medicine. She combines deep scientific and technology expertise with board and committee experience in both private and public sectors. 

As Senior Vice President of Precision Medicine and Biosamples, she is accountable for development of novel companion and complementary diagnostics for AstraZeneca’s drug projects in all therapy areas and phases of drug development, leads more than 240 diagnostics and biosamples experts globally, and has successfully launched 48 diagnostic tests for five Precision Medicine drugs. 

Dr March has a proven record of driving innovation in Precision Medicine including the world’s first drug label based on circulating tumour DNA (Iressa); the first FDA approval of a lab-based companion diagnostic (gBRCA for Lynparza); the first diagnostic approval based on both ctDNA and tissue testing (Tagrisso); the first point of care diagnostic for respiratory disease (EDN). She has gained major investment for a world-leading pharmaceutical genomics initiative that is successfully discovering novel drug targets proceeding into the R&D pipeline. 

In the Covid-19 pandemic, she set up an end-to-end global programme to test AstraZeneca key employees by PCR, antigen and antibody methods in 3 major markets in 18 working days, keeping the workplace safe and maintaining the supply chain of critical medicines. This programme has now completed over 60,000 PCR assessments.

Dr March is passionate about mentoring, diversity, early career researchers and innovation in life sciences, establishing important collaborations with institutions such as the University of Cambridge, FinnGen and the Wellcome Sanger Institute. 

Professor Sir Chris Whitty, FMedSci

Professor Chris Whitty is Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for England, the UK government’s Chief Medical Adviser and head of the public health profession. He represents the UK on the Executive Board of the World Health Organization.

Chris is a practising NHS Consultant Physician at University College London Hospitals (UCLH) and the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, and Gresham Professor of Physic at Gresham College.

Chris is an epidemiologist and has undertaken research and worked as a doctor in the UK, Africa and Asia. He was Professor of Public and International Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) before becoming CMO.

Chris was the Chief Scientific Adviser for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) from January 2016 to August 2021, with overall responsibility for the department’s research and development, including being head of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), the government’s major funder of clinical, public health, social care and translational research.

Chris was the interim Government Chief Scientific Adviser from 2017 to 2018, including during the Novichok poisonings. Before that, he was the Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department for International Development (DFID), which included leading technical work on the West Africa Ebola outbreak and other international emergencies.