Vaccines - From Concept to Clinic with Oxford Sparks

Clinical trials for vaccines: how they work and what's involved for volunteers. Testing novel vaccines in humans is the first step on a long route to licensure. Clinical trials are long, expensive but essential procedures designed to confirm both a vaccines safety but also its effectiveness. Here we discuss clinical trial design and the important role of clinical trial volunteers with an overview of what volunteering for a clinical vaccine trial entails. Featuring guest Natalie Lella.

The stringent processes that ensure new vaccines are clinic-ready Vaccines like any medicinal product need to be manufactured at the highest standard before they are allowed to be tested in humans. Achieving such standards take time, money and careful planning. In this episode we discuss the stringent processes that take a vaccine from a preclinical stage to the clinic ready for vaccination in human subjects. Featuring guest, Emma Bolam.

Approaches used to target particularly tricky diseases to treat, such as malaria, HIV, Flu and TB. Whilst many of the world’s major diseases can be targeted by vaccines there is a drastic need for new or improved vaccines against a number of the most deadly including HIV, malaria, Tuberculosis and Influenza. In this episode we discuss why these diseases and others have been particularly difficult to target by vaccination and the approaches currently being used in the development of vaccines targeting them. Featuring guests, Lynda Coughlan and Rachel Tanner.

Vaccine origins, science behind how vaccines work and how outbreaks of diseases can occur if vaccination levels drop too low. Vaccines are arguably the most successful medical interventions in human history saving millions of lives annually and contributed significantly to the elimination of one of the world’s most deadly diseases, smallpox. In this episode we cover the origins of vaccination and the science behind how vaccines work. We also discuss how common misgivings about vaccination can lead to dangerous outbreaks of infectious disease.