Showing articles associated with Elizabeth Clutterbuck
Dr Elizabeth Clutterbuck is a researcher with the Oxford Vaccine Group. Her background is in immunology, from her time as a graduate level Biomedical Scientist from UWE Bristol, through to an MSc in immunology research at Kings College London and her PhD with the Open University.
What is you main area of interest/expertise?
My main focus was on antibody responses to childhood vaccines and measurement of functional responses. Development an opsonophagocytic assay (OPA) for detecting responses to pneumococcal vaccines formed the basis of my MSc thesis and led to research job at CDC, Atlanta, where I developed high throughput OPA for the flow cytometer.
On returning to the UK to work with Professor Pollard at the Oxford Vaccine Group, my focus switched to B cells rather than serum antibody. For my PhD, I looked at developing B cell ELISpot assays to look at plasma cell and memory B cell responses in all age groups following pneumococcal immunisation.
Recently, I was involved in the Phase 1 Ebola vaccine trial with Janssen, followed by the Phase 2 study, where they were able to apply their B cell assays to assess responses to these regimens.
What are you working on right now?
Currently, I am working with the COVID-19 vaccine trial, helping coordinate the laboratory aspects of the trials and leading on investigation of the B cell response to the vaccine and infection.
Why is Oxford a good place to work in this field of research?
Oxford University attracts some of the top people in infectious disease research and is also home to a diverse field of research from Immunology and microbiology to genomics, transcriptomics and public engagement. The close ties with the John Radcliffe Hospital also enables easier studies of patient populations and collaboration with medical teams. I think that this provides an exiting environment in which to see really translational approaches to medicine and technology development.
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