T cell responses to the Oxford / AZ COVID-19 vaccine in UK clinical trials

Katie Ewer is Associate Professor and Senior Immunologist at the Jenner Institute, University of Oxford where she leads a program of exploratory immunology studying vaccine-induced immunity to malaria and outbreak pathogens, such as Ebola, MERS and now SARS-CoV-2. A key aim of her research is focused on characterizing T cell responses induced by vaccination with viral vectors. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she played a pivotal role in the clinical trials in an effort to find a vaccine, which has led to the successful roll-out of the first approved SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, ChAdOx1 in partnership with AstraZeneca in December 2020. In this talk she explains how the vaccine was developed in record-breaking time, the characterisation of the immune responses to the vaccine and the forthcoming challenges still faced including the question of booster doses, manufacturing and supply and how we respond to the next inevitable pandemic.