Independent Scientific Advisory Board Members
Andrew Mcmichael (Chairman)
Sir Andrew McMichael is Professor Emeritus of the University of Oxford. He is a doctor and immunologist who researches the human immune response. Andrew has made a major contribution to our understanding of T cells and their role in the response of the immune system to viral infection. Andrew’s work focuses on the response of T cells to viruses. He was the first to show that viral protein fragments — peptides — are presented to T cells by HLA proteins on the surface of virally infected cells. This activity enables the immune system to recognise that the cell has been infected and should therefore mount an attack. The team that Andrew now heads works on vaccine development for both influenza and HIV; their HIV vaccines have now successfully entered clinical trials. Andrew is also working on ways of measuring the level of immune response that is protective against HIV. He has won a number of international awards during his career and was knighted for services to medical science in 2008.
Mark Davis
Dr. Mark M. Davis is the Director of the Stanford Institute for Immunology, Transplantation and Infection (ITI), a Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. He received a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University and a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology. He later was a postdoctoral fellow and staff fellow at the Laboratory of Immunology at NIH and later became a faculty member in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine, where he remains today. Dr. Davis is well known for identifying many of the T-cell receptor genes, which are responsible for the ability of these cells to recognise a diverse repertoire of antigens. Other work in his laboratory pioneered studies of the biochemistry, genetics and cell biology of these molecules and T lymphocytes generally, which play a key role in orchestrating immune responses. His current research focuses on obtaining a “systems level” understanding of the human immune system. This has involved the steady state and vaccine responses of old and young subjects, as well as a recent study of twins, which concluded the variation in most immune system parameters is not driven by inherited variation, but rather by environmental factors.
Charlotte Deane
Charlotte Deane MBE is a Professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of Oxford and the Executive Chair of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). From 2022 to 2023, Charlotte was Chief AI Officer at Exscientia, where she led its computational scientific development. She served on SAGE, the UK Government Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and acted as UK Research and Innovation COVID-19 Response Director. At Oxford, Charlotte leads the Oxford Protein Informatics Group (OPIG), who work on diverse problems across immunoinformatics, protein structure and small molecule drug discovery; using statistics, AI and computation to generate biological and medical insight. Her work focuses on the development of novel algorithms, tools and databases that are openly available to the community. These tools are widely used web resources and are also part of several Pharma drug discovery pipelines. Charlotte is a member of several advisory boards and has consulted extensively with industry. Additionally, she has established a consulting arm within her research group as a way of promoting industrial interaction and use of the group’s software tools.
Jamie Rossjohn
Professor Jamie Rossjohn's research is centered on an understanding immunity. He is currently a NHMRC Investigator L3 Fellow (2022-26) and previously an ARC Australian Laureate Fellow (2017-21), NHMRC Australia Fellow (2011-16) and ARC Federation Fellow (2007-11). In 2022, Prof. Rossjohn was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society and Associate Member of EMBO Prof. Rossjohn is known for his contributions to the understanding the molecular basis underpinning immunity. He has used structural biology to explain pre-T-cell receptor (TCR) self-association in T-cell development, and how the TCR specifically recognises polymorphic Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) molecules in the context of viral immunity and aberrant T-cell reactivity. He has unearthed structural mechanisms of HLA polymorphism impacting on drug and food hypersensitivities, as well as Natural Killer cell receptor recognition. He has pioneered our molecular understanding of lipid-based immunity by T cells, revealing that it can differ fundamentally from peptide-mediated adaptive immunity. Recently he has provided a structural basis of how vitamin B metabolites can be presented and recognised by the immune system, revealing a new class of antigen. Collectively, he has published > 522 papers and mentored numerous researchers towards obtaining higher degrees and nationally competitive fellowships. Since 2017, he has developed scientific outreach activities that embrace those in the community that are disadvantaged; namely employing people in his laboratory with a disability through internships/scholarship programs; and together with legally-blind artist in residence, Dr Erica Tandori, is making science accessible to the blind and low vision community via Monash Sensory Science exhibitions.
Rupert Vessey
Rupert Vessey graduated from Oxford University with degrees in Physiological Sciences (MA, First Class Honors) and Clinical Medicine (BM, BCh, proxime accessit). He subsequently undertook clinical training at several notable institutions in the UK including the Hammersmith Hospital at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, London, the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London and the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford. During this time, he became a Member of the Royal College of Physicians of London UK. Rupert undertook basic research training at the Hammersmith Hospital and at the Institute for Molecular Medicine, Oxford where he completed a DPhil in Molecular Immunology. During his research period he was a Junior Research Fellow of Merton College, Oxford and a training fellow of the UK Medical Research Council. In 2012 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, London and in 2019 he was appointed visiting Professor of Rheumatology at the University of Oxford. Rupert joined the pharmaceutical industry in 1997 and has worked in the UK and USA. During 10 years at Merck Research Laboratories (MRL) Rupert benefitted from diverse experiences including a period working on the clinical development of varicella vaccines. Since 2006 Rupert held multiple roles in senior scientific management at Merck. In 2015 Rupert joined Celgene as Senior Vice President of Translational Development and Head of the Immunology and Inflammation Thematic Center of Excellence and in 2016 he assumed the role of Executive Vice President and President of Global Research and Early Development. In July of 2023 Rupert retired from his role at BMS and joined Flagship Pioneering as an Executive Partner and Chief Scientist.
Carola Vinuesa
Carola Vinuesa obtained a medical degree at the University Autonoma of Madrid (1993), undertook clinical training in the UK, and was awarded a PhD by the University of Birmingham (2000). As a Wellcome Trust International Research Fellow, she did postdoctoral work at the Australian National University (ANU) where she became a group leader (2006), Professor of Immunology (2010), and Head of Department (2011). In 2014 she founded and co-directed the Centre for Personalised Immunology, an NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence, as well as a sister Centre in Shanghai Renji Hospital. In late 2021 she became a Royal Society Wolfson Fellow and Assistant Research Director at The Francis Crick Institute (London, UK). She is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of London (FRS), the Australian Academy of Science (FAA), the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Science (FAHMS) and the UK Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci). Carola has discovered novel T cell subsets that control B cell responses – follicular helper T cells (Tfh) and follicular regulatory T cells (Tfr cells) – as well as the mechanisms by which they regulate antibody responses and limit autoimmunity. Her recent discoveries are connecting genetic variation in humans to autoimmune diseases like lupus and illuminating disease pathogenesis. She has been the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the Australian Academy of Science Gottschalk medal, the Australian Science Minister’s prize for Life scientist of the year, the 2023 Lupus Insight Prize (LRA) and Johann Anton Merck Award 2023.
Dr. Mark M. Davis is the Director of the Stanford Institute for Immunology, Transplantation and Infection (ITI), a Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. He received a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University and a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology. He later was a postdoctoral fellow and staff fellow at the Laboratory of Immunology at NIH and later became a faculty member in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine, where he remains today. Dr. Davis is well known for identifying many of the T-cell receptor genes, which are responsible for the ability of these cells to recognise a diverse repertoire of antigens. Other work in his laboratory pioneered studies of the biochemistry, genetics and cell biology of these molecules and T lymphocytes generally, which play a key role in orchestrating immune responses. His current research focuses on obtaining a “systems level” understanding of the human immune system. This has involved the steady state and vaccine responses of old and young subjects, as well as a recent study of twins, which concluded the variation in most immune system parameters is not driven by inherited variation, but rather by environmental factors.
Charlotte Deane MBE is a Professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of Oxford and the Executive Chair of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). From 2022 to 2023, Charlotte was Chief AI Officer at Exscientia, where she led its computational scientific development. She served on SAGE, the UK Government Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and acted as UK Research and Innovation COVID-19 Response Director. At Oxford, Charlotte leads the Oxford Protein Informatics Group (OPIG), who work on diverse problems across immunoinformatics, protein structure and small molecule drug discovery; using statistics, AI and computation to generate biological and medical insight. Her work focuses on the development of novel algorithms, tools and databases that are openly available to the community. These tools are widely used web resources and are also part of several Pharma drug discovery pipelines. Charlotte is a member of several advisory boards and has consulted extensively with industry. Additionally, she has established a consulting arm within her research group as a way of promoting industrial interaction and use of the group’s software tools.