Biography
Rachel is an Associate Professor in One Health at the Department of Biology and a Tutorial Fellow for Biology at St Hugh’s College. She completed an undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences (Wadham College), a DPhil in Clinical Medicine (St Cross College), and a postdoctoral fellowship (Jenner Institute) all at the University of Oxford. She was previously a Junior Research Fellow at Somerville College, a Research Fellow at Wolfson College, and a Lecturer in Human Sciences at Wadham College. Rachel has a passion for widening access and has been involved in a number of outreach programmes.
Teaching
Rachel teaches various topics relating to immunology, infectious diseases and genetics. She welcomes enquiries from MBiol and prospective DPhil students interested in TB vaccine immunology.
Research interests
Rachel’s research is concerned with tuberculosis (TB) in humans and cattle, with a focus on vaccine design and evaluation. In particular, she is interested in immune mechanisms/correlates of protection, characterising the humoral response to TB vaccines, and novel antigen discovery. She also has an interest in the heterologous (off-target) effects of TB vaccines and the sociological aspects of vaccinology.
Rachel has published widely on the development of in vitro functional assays for preclinical TB vaccine testing. These represent a high-throughput down-selection screening tool and align with the principles of the 3Rs (replacement, reduction and refinement) for the use of animals in scientific procedures. In 2021 she was awarded the AAALAC International Global 3Rs Award in recognition of this work.
Rachel’s research has attracted funding from the UKRI-GCRF network VALIDATE, the NC3Rs, the British Society for Immunology and the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene among others.
Publications
Please click here to view Rachel’s publications.
