Gilbert Group Online Speaker
Prep pupils learn about vaccine breakthroughs
Earlier this week, a group of Rydal Penrhos pupils from across the Prep were fortunate to have an hour long video conference with a scientist from the Gilbert Group, part of the Jenner Institute at Oxford University.
The pupils were either winners of the recent Great Elizabethans competition held at school or had done their project on Dame Sarah Gilbert whom the Group is named after.
Dr Sean Elias is a member of Dame Sarah’s team that invented the first COVID 19 vaccine known as Oxford-AstraZeneca. Sean kindly spent time answering the pupils’ many questions about being a scientist and testing vaccines. Amongst other things they learnt that a virus is not a cell and that it is so small you have to use an electron microscope to view them – a million vaccines could fit into the space of a full stop!
They also learnt that the team have been part of a ten year scientific project to find a vaccine for malaria; this has now been successfully tested on 500,000 people and the hope is that malaria will now be able to be eradicated just like Edward Jenner eradicated small pox, the first disease to be controlled by a vaccine.
Sean also ‘took’ the pupils on a virtual tour of the labs and explained how a vaccine is produced, he apologised that the labs might look a bit messy but the pupils thought they looked very tidy compared to their own bedrooms!
Some of the work of vaccinologists (they call themselves vaxxers!) seemed a bit dangerous, working with big machines and diseases but Sean carefully pointed out all of the PPE and the training that all staff have to undertake.
Sean impressed the group by saying that mathematical models have shown that the Covid 19 vaccine, that he was part of developing, has directly saved 5,000,000 lives!
The pupils all want to thank Sean, and the Gilbert Institute, for taking the time to speak to them. It was inspirational to hear the details of working in a real lab and of the life changing work that they undertake.
https://www.jenner.ac.uk/
https://www.ndm.ox.ac.uk/team/sarah-gilbert
https://www.jenner.ac.uk/team/sean-elias
Who is Dame Sarah Gilbert?
Dame Sarah Gilbert is a renowned British vaccinologist and professor of vaccinology at the University of Oxford.
She has devoted her career to developing vaccines that protect against infectious diseases such as influenza, malaria, and most recently, COVID-19.
Throughout her career, Gilbert has been recognized for her contributions to science and public health. In 2020, she was named one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people in the world, and in 2021, she was awarded a damehood in the Queen's Birthday Honours.
