Dr Sandy Douglas was awarded a 5 year Wellcome Stage 2 Clinical Research Career Development Fellowship, receiving £1.3m of funding to investigate development of new vaccines against rabies and Epstein Barr virus. On the back of his strong fellowship application, he also was one of four recipients of a Wellcome-Beit prize, worth another £25k of funding. This prize is awarded annually to Wellcome’s strongest applicants across their range of intermediate-level clinical & non-clinical fellowship schemes.
Dr Sandy Douglas commented upon receiving the news: “I’m really grateful to Wellcome for the opportunity to start work on vaccines against Epstein Barr virus. As well as glandular fever the virus causes many cancers and seems to be a prerequisite for development of multiple sclerosis, but it’s a tricky target and has been quite neglected by vaccine developers. The Jenner & the wider NDM are the perfect setting to enable progress in this important area.”