The funds from the Ellison Institute of Technology are to launch a programme of vaccine research into serious infections.
The Oxford University, through its strategic partnership with the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT), has received £118 million research funding to launch a programme of vaccine research into infections.
The CoI-AI programme will study how the immune system responds to germs that cause serious infections and contribute to antibiotic resistance – including Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus and E. coli – which cause illness but have resisted traditional vaccine approaches.
Researchers will use human challenge models, where volunteers are safely exposed to bacteria under controlled conditions, and apply modern immunology and AI tools to pinpoint the immune responses that predict protection.
Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, called it “a new frontier in vaccine science”.
Smart immunology tools
In December 2024, Oxford University and EIT announced a long-term strategic alliance to develop the solutions and future leaders needed to tackle some of the most enduring challenges facing humanity.
EIT combines research and commercial capability to drive scientific breakthroughs and create sustainable, ethical companies, bringing together cross-cutting capabilities and talent spanning generative biology, clinical medicine, plant science, sustainable energy and public policy. These efforts are underpinned by computing capability enabled by Oracle, an AI team, and a scholars programme.
The Oxford Vaccine Group is a vaccine research group within the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Oxford’s medical sciences division.
“This programme will give us completely new tools to study how vaccines work at both a cellular and system-wide level, by studying infections in real time, in people, and using smart immunology tools and data to find the answers,” said Daniela Ferreira, deputy director of the Oxford Vaccine Group.
