Designing the Next Generation of Vaccines
by Derek O’Hagan, BPharm, MRPharmS, PhD
Carle Illinois College of Medicine
Innovation Grand Rounds
Friday, August 13, 2021
noon – 1:00 p.m. Presentation by Derek O’Hagan
1:00 – 1:30 p.m. Reflection & Dialogue
Zoom Call-in: go.illinois.edu/innovationgrandrounds
Abstract: The licensed vaccines are safe and effective and offer protection against a broad range of infectious diseases. However, the recent pandemic has highlighted some limitations, whilst also offering opportunities for new technologies to be advanced to meet the ongoing challenge. I will cover the science behind some of the newer technologies, including new adjuvant systems and RNA vaccines, and compare them with the more established approaches to vaccine development. I will highlight both the advantages and limitations, while addressing if the newer approaches have put us in a better place to allow us to meet future challenges.
Derek O’Hagan, BPharm, MRPharmS, PhD is currently a Senior Advisor in R&D in GSK Vaccines, since 2018, and a GSK Fellow, since 2019. Prior to this I was the Global Head of Discovery Support and New Technology in GSK Vaccines. Until 2015, I was the Global Head of Vaccine Chemistry and Formulation Research for Novartis Vaccines. I have extensive experience on Vaccine Adjuvants, including participation in the R&D of those included in licensed products and I was part of the Team that established the program on Self Amplifying RNA vaccines (SAM) in Novartis, Cambridge, which is now active in GSK. I served on the Board of Scientific Advisors for the Controlled Release Society and I am a Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists. I was awarded the Conference Science medal of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain in 1997, and the Young Investigator Research Achievement Award of the Controlled Release Society in 1999. I was also named as the ‘most inventive scientist’ in Chiron in 2004 and was the lead author on the most cited paper in ‘Vaccine’ 2008-10.
