Summary: Vaccines against Covid19 have been an important focus of our efforts to combat the pandemic. In this session, Drs Katie Brooks, James Brock and Georgia Perona-Wright will discuss how the vaccines work, how the immune response provides protection, and how the clinical trials process tests safety and efficacy. Our speakers provide expertise in clinical trial approvals, clinical decision making, and research immunology. We are planning a short presentation and time for a longer Q&A session to allow your questions to guide the discussion.
Speakers:
Dr Katie Brooks has worked in regulatory medical writing for clinical research companies since 2008. She is currently a Principal Medical Writer at PPD, where she writes and reviews documents for clinical trials and for submissions to regulatory authorities such as the European Medicines Agency and the US Food and Drug Administration.
Dr James Brock is a Registrar in Rheumatology with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, and has recently been involved in the OCTAVE trial looking at Covid vaccine efficacy in immuno-suppressed people. He is also a research student at the University of Glasgow and expert in the communication between our immune systems and our brains.
Dr Georgia Perona-Wright is a Senior Lecturer in Immunology at the University of Glasgow. She specialises in the immune response to infections, and how the immune system can be regulated to achieve the optimal response to a pathogen (not too strong, not too weak, but just enough).