My Leadership-in-Action project this summer is taking place in the University of Oxford's Jenner Institute, a research group focused on the development and clinical testing of vaccines. I was drawn to their work because of their obviously prolific role in radical vaccines (Oxford-Astra Zeneca COVID vaccine) but also because of immunology's inherent focus on diseases that affect primarily low-and-middle income countries. The Jenner Institute created the first malaria vaccine, which is currently undergoing Phase 3 clinical trials in sub-Saharan Africa. Rather than the lab, which is where most of my work in college has centered, my work this summer is focused on the administration of the Phase 1 clinical trials that take place here in Oxford, including helping with the patient and public involvement group, trial administration and regulations, volunteer recruitment, and more.
The nature of clinical trials, especially the Phase 1 trials that take place here in Oxford, are both scientifically and socially interesting to me. I was drawn to clinical trials as an area of focus due tangentially to my project last summer: Studying preeclampsia led me to learn more about women's health with led me to learn more about women being underrepresented in clinical trials which led me to learn more about about the ethical nuance of clinical trials themselves. While it is important that clinical trials recruit diverse participants to ensure the medical product is effective for all those who may use it, how do you prevent certain groups from being taken advantage of? (See Tuskegee) What are the necessary steps to take to ensure participants who (especially in a Phase 1 clinical trial) understand what they are getting into? All these questions are ones that, not only affect the community that is involved in the clinical trial itself, but the broader group that may eventually receive the product. Indeed, it's had tangential effects here in the Jenner Institute itself; I'm sure many of you have heard of the (albeit rare) blot clotting that was a result of underrepresented populations in the Oxford-Astra Zeneca vaccine trials themselves.
Given the length of this post, it's clear my time here has sparked a bit of thinking. Here's a pretty picture from the forested area I cross in my commute to work.