Prof Simon J. Draper is Professor of Vaccinology and Translational Medicine at the University of Oxford and a Wellcome Trust Senior Fellow. He has been based at the Jenner Institute, NDM since 2005, but in Feb 2021 will move his group to the University of Oxford’s Department of Biochemistry to be based in the new Phase-2 building.
His research interests include studies of vaccine-induced malaria immunity as well as the optimisation of antibody and B cell induction by subunit vaccines. In recent years, his group has developed new vaccines targeting major blood-stage antigens from the human malaria parasites Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax. This work has been translated into numerous Phase I/II clinical trials conducted in Oxford and Africa, including efficacy studies using controlled human malaria infection (CHMI). Many aspects of the lab’s work are conducted in partnership with other academics and industry. Prof Draper’s work is also focusing on the isolation of human monoclonal antibodies from vaccinated volunteers in clinical trials, seeking to understand the mechanisms underlying the human antibody response to vaccination and how antibodies protect against blood-stage malaria parasites.