Helen McShane

Helen McShane is a British infectious disease physician and a professor of vaccinology, in the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford, where she has led their tuberculosis vaccine research group since 2001.

Education

Helen McShane first studied at the University of London, where she obtained an intercalated BSc degree in psychology in 1988 and a degree in medicine in 1991. She then began a PhD at the University of Oxford in 1997 before receiving a Wellcome Trust Science Fellowship and starting her own tuberculosis vaccine research group there.

Career

After receiving her degree in medicine from the University of London, her first hospital jobs were in Brighton. Whilst working with patients with HIV she became interested in infectious diseases, which prompted her to move to Oxford and become a registrar for infectious diseases. She then became a clinical consultant in 2003. She is an honorary consultant in HIV and genito-urinary medicine at the Oxford University Hospitals.

Research

Since 2002, the Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative Advisory Committee, of which Helen McShane is the chair, has conducted clinical trials of a number of candidate vaccines developed at the Jenner Institute, including MVA85A and ChAdOx1 85A in the UK, The Gambia, South Africa, Senegal and Uganda. MVA85A is the first TB vaccine candidate in this cohort to be tested for efficacy in humans.

The committee is also currently investigating whether delivering a TB vaccine via the aerosol route (nebulisation directly into the lungs) is a more effective method of vaccination.

Helen McShane has published over 100 peer-reviewed publications.

Awards

In 2019, Helen McShane amongst other Oxford professors was named a National Institute of Health Research Senior Investigator, in recognition of her "outstanding contribution to clinical and applied health and social care research".