The search for a Vaccine

April 2020

So after the success of Grazia’s NHS covers they decided to continue with the story and find out about the research that was being done to find a Vaccine for Covid19. We again focused on women only - some of the unit are lead by women, or a high percentage of the doctors and researchers are women.

These shoot were further afield - Oxford, Cambridge and London - but I felt that this could fall under essential travel (and not in a Dominic Cummings sort of way).

The doctors, much like the NHS workers, where working under extreem pressure and long hours. With the expectations of the world on their shoulders.

Each of the teams were approaching the vaccine in different ways and two had already made a vaccine which was going into clinical trials. Prof. Katies Ewers team at the Jenner institute in Oxford are the most advanced, They had previously made a successful vaccine for MERS another corona type virus, as well as a vaccine for Ebola and Malaria!! Anna Blackney at Imperial college and Rebecca Kinsley at University of Cambridge were also making impressively fast progress.

But all of them realistically said that the virus won’t be ready before the end of the year (the ebola vaccine took 5 years to get through trials).

I actually brought a backdrop with me for these shoots and photographed inside, the mostly deserted labs, for the environmental shots. Anna Silverman again did the excellent interviews, experts of which you can read when you hover over the shots.

Also the full set of Covid 19 related photographs are on my website here

Search for a Vaccine

Coronavirus Diptychs -

Anna K. Blakney is a bioengineer at Imperial college London. Sheis working on a RNA designed Covid - 19 Vaccine, which is in clinical trials.

"We heard whispers about coronavirus being this infectious in December, but I was sceptical at first. A few weeks later the switch flipped, and it was full steam ahead. I started adapting work I was doing on rabies and influenza to work on this. Along with my team, I have designed and made the coronavirus vaccine and tested how well it works in animals. After that it gets passed over to human testing. The good news is it seems to work really well. I like being able to reassure people: it’s going to happen."

Date: 7 April 2020

Search for a Vaccine

Coronavirus Diptychs -

Katie Ewer is a Senior Immunologist at the Jenner Institute, University of Oxford. She has developed vaccines for Maleria, ebola and Mers and is in clinical trials stage for a covid- 19 vaccine.

"We started designing the vaccine as soon as China released the genetic sequence of the virus in January – back when none of us imagined how far it could possibly spread. Creating a vaccine this fast has never been done before, ever. We’ve also never designed a clinical trial during an outbreak before and implementing social distancing in the lab has been a first. We use a tape measure to make sure we’re two metres apart.

My team is really well-represented by women. Heavily female teams feel different; there seems to be more collaboration and less ego. Science can be competitive, but if one of the 40-odd labs working on this around the world gets there first, we’ll just be relieved someone has succeeded."

Date: 6 April 2020

Search for a Vaccine

Coronavirus Diptychs -

Rebecca Kinsley is a Virologist at Cambridge university Infectious Diseases research centre.

Photographed at the department of Vetranary medicine, Laboratory of Viral Zoonotics .

"My life has felt like a bit of a dress rehearsal leading up to this moment. As a student, I gave presentations on pandemics and I’ve been deeply engrossed in work around how we would respond to one ever since. In an abstract way, I’ve been thinking about this moment for years. But now it’s real it feels daunting. I’m slightly in shock, but not surprised.

As I drive to work along the emptied roads, it’s strange reminding myself: this is it. It’s happening now. The college greens where students usually gather are eerily silent. Only those working on Covid-19 remain at work. Trying to contribute to something so huge globally gives me a sense of responsibility and it’s reassuring to work with a strong team. We just wish that there were more hours in the day for us to do it in.

Date: 4 April 2020