NIHR directory

Professor Helen McShane

NIHR Strategy and Engagement Board Member

Professor Helen McShane represents the NIHR Biomedical Research Centres on the NIHR Strategy and Engagement Board. She is Director of the Oxford BRC, Professor of Vaccinology at Oxford University and Deputy Head, Medical Sciences Division, and an Honorary Consultant in Infectious Diseases.

Helen was awarded a Wellcome Senior Clinical Research Fellowship in 2005 and 2010 and currently holds a Wellcome Trust Investigator Award. She was elected to be a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2019.

Since 2001, Helen has lead a TB vaccine research group at the University of Oxford. She led the development of MVA85A, the first new TB vaccine candidate to enter efficacy testing. Current areas of focus include the development of controlled human mycobacterial challenge models, aerosol delivery of vaccines and immunomonitoring in clinical trials. She collaborates with several research groups across Africa in TB vaccine clinical trials.

Most recently, Helen has been leading a programme to establish a controlled human infection model with SARS CoV2 which will allow the evaluation of protective immunity.