Meredith Leston

DPhil thesis

Vaccine benefit-risk for COVID-19 and seasonal influenza in immunosuppressed subgroups

Supervisors

Simon de Lusignan, Richard Hobbs, Mark Joy

Background

Meredith's research is focused upon developing a real-time vaccine benefit risk platform capable of monitoring and differentiating COVID and seasonal influenza vaccine effectiveness, uptake and adverse effects amongst immunocompromised patient groups - the first of its kind. This is especially important given the exclusion of these patients from initial development trials. 

Her research utilises a combination of routinely collected primary care medical record data (courtesy of the Oxford-Royal College of General Practitioners' Research and Surveillance Centre) and biological specimen data (virology and serology) and aims to inform vaccine scheduling and dosing in this vulnerable group. By leveraging the technological capabilities of her commercial partner, EMIS Health, and the expertise of the Turing and Aspen UK Fellowships she is a part of, Meredith intends to unpick which immunocompromised sub-categories, patient demographics and concurrent medications are most susceptible to vaccine failure or accelerated waning and will establish a mechanism for immunocompromised patients to report adverse events of interest immediately post-vaccination.

This work aims to support wider efforts to prioritise vaccine distribution in resource constrained settings and the allocation of expensive vaccine alternatives (monoclonals, antivirals, convalescent plasma etc.) in nationalised health settings such as the NHS.