Whilst we believe that most of our current research effort is already influencing the ways we think about and understand disease processes, there are often many years between a discovery in medical science and its exploitation in a manner that impacts on patients’ lives. Below is a selection of highlights from past work in which current members of the Department played critical roles and which are now evidently “making a difference”.
- The development of a new vaccine (now in trials in several countries of the world) to protect against infection by the human papillomavirus responsible for cervical cancer
- Solution of the complete genomic sequence of the human MHC Class I locus.
- Production of an antibody (CAMPATH-1), now in full clinical use and marketed as Alemtuzumab™ for treatment of certain types of leukaemia. CAMPATH-1 was developed by Prof Herman Waldmann and his colleagues prior to his move to head the Dunn School of Pathology in Oxford.