Researchers have been working hard to develop a vaccine that will protect us against the virus and that can be distributed at low cost. Professor Robin Shattock and his team have developed a prototype vaccine is different from traditional vaccines. It’s cheap, highly scalable and has the potential to deliver many effective doses next year, should the current human trials succeed.
But how does this work? How is it different from a normal vaccine? When might we see results? And what’s it been like working on COVID-19?
Join COVID-19 vaccine researchers Dr Anna Blakney and Dr Paul McKay to go behind the scenes and ask your questions directly.
How the Q&A works
- It’s free and open to everyone. It will be streamed on YouTube and you will be sent the YouTube link before the event.
- We’ll be taking questions in the YouTube comments, or if you’d prefer, you can send your questions in advance to societal_engagement@imperial.ac.uk
- The main focus of the event is Q&A so we’ll try and get through as many questions as we can.
About our speakers
Dr Anna Blakney
Anna is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellow focusing on the development of a self-amplifying RNA vaccine for COVID-19.
Anna is specifically looking at engineering both the RNA – the virus’s genetic code – and the way it’s delivered into our cells to improve our body’s immune response to the vaccine.
Dr Paul McKay
Paul is a Senior Researcher Fellow, working primarily on the development of new vaccine candidates, how we optimise immunisation and the assessment of how effective prototype vaccines are.