The consortium will be led by the Pirbright Institute and the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, but researchers from across University of Oxford will play a key role.
Professor Miles Carroll’s group, based at the Pandemic Sciences Institute and the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, will be working with consortium colleagues on the development of a lateral flow device (LFD) for the rapid point of care diagnosis of monkeypox virus (MPXV). As MPXV infection can be confused with other common diseases, a reliable rapid diagnostic device would greatly benefit the public health response.
Professor Tao Dong’s group will lead in the understanding of T cell responses to the virus. T cells are an integral part of the immune response to viral infections and required for clearance of the virus, as well as providing long-lasting protection through the generation of memory cells. Prof Dong and her team, based at both the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences-Oxford Institute at the Nuffield Department of Medicine and MRC Human Immunology Unit at the MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, will work to understand the cross-reactivity of existing T cells elicited in response to the smallpox vaccine against monkeypox infection, as well as characterising the T cell responses elicited by monkeypox infection.
Read the full story on the Nuffield Department of Medicine website