I am a Senior Lecturer at Bristol Vaccine Centre and Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Immunology & Infectious Diseases at Bristol Royal Hospital for Children.

My research explores how we can design new and better vaccines through understanding the function of immune cells that reside in the respiratory tract. I developed my interest in respiratory immunity while studying macrophage function in the laboratory of Professor Tracy Hussell during my PhD which was funded by fellowships from the Medical Research Council and European Society of Paediatric Infectious Diseases (ESPID). Now, I am interested in how we can develop a vaccine for group A Streptococcus (GAS) by profiling the antigen-specific response of respiratory lymphoid tissue. GAS infection is a neglected global disease that not only causes sore throat, but also kills more than half a million people every year by causing invasive infections and rheumatic heart disease.

Our laboratory research programme in mucosal immunity and group A Streptococcus vaccine antigen discovery is funded by grants from ESPID, Bristol & Weston Hospitals Charity, Spencer Dayman Meningitis Research and The Leducq Foundation. I also lead a NIHR Health Protection Research Focus Award in Vaccines and Immunisation in which we are exploring the use of saliva as a tool for infectious disease surveillance and monitoring of vaccine programmes.

I completed a NIHR CRN West of England Research Scholarship, and lead clinical vaccine trials, working alongside a large multidsciplinary team at Bristol Vaccine Centre. 

I contribute to both undergraduate and postgraduate teaching locally, and internationally as chair the ESPID Walter Marget Workshop. I also co-lead Bristol INSPIRE, part of a national programme to increase medical, vet and dental student engagement in research.