COVID-19 Series: The latest information on virus mutations - Episode 104

Gillian Leng, CBE, MBChB, MD, is a professor of public health with a wealth of experience in healthcare and the life sciences sector.  She was on the Board of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for over 20 years (2001-2021) most recently as its Chief Executive.  As NICE’s Chief Executive, Gillian was responsible for delivering a new 5 year strategy to put NICE at the forefront of global evaluation of new technologies.  This was underpinned by a vision for creating dynamic living guidelines for frontline healthcare staff.  Prior to this, Gillian was instrumental in establishing the original clinical guideline programme at NICE, followed by setting up an implementation work programme to ensure the recommendations changed practice.  She also developed many of NICE’s new initiatives including indicators for the Quality and Outcomes Framework and for the online portal NICE Evidence. 

With a passion for using evidence to improve healthcare, Gillian is a trustee of the Guidelines International Network and a member of the Global Evidence Commission.  She is a visiting professor at King’s College London, an affiliate professor at the University of Singapore and a healthcare adviser for Brevia Health.  Gillian read medicine at the University of Leeds, and is a fellow of the Royal Colleges of Physicians in London and Edinburgh.  She was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Science by the University of Leeds in 2022, and a CBE in 2012 for services to healthcare.

Lawrence Young is internationally recognised for his work on the role of virus infection (Epstein–Barr virus and human papillomavirus) in the pathogenesis of various tumours. He also has an interest in gene and immunotherapy and this work has resulted in several clinical trials. He has published over 240 research papers in scientific journals as well as over 80 reviews and book chapters in the fields of virology, cancer and tumour immunology. Lawrence is listed amongst the World’s most cited scientists in the ISI’s list of Highly Cited Researchers and has received major grants from Cancer Research UK, Leukaemia Research Fund (now Blood Cancer UK) and the Medical Research Council.

Lawrence was Pro-Vice Chancellor and Head of College of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Birmingham from 2008 to 2012 and then joined the University of Warwick as Pro-Vice Chancellor with responsibility for strategic planning and resources.  In 2018 Lawrence was appointed Professor of Molecular Oncology and Director of the Warwick Cancer Research Centre. In 2019 he became co-lead of the Warwick Health Global Research Priority – a cross-campus interdisciplinary health network. He has an adjunct Professorship at Monash University (Melbourne, Australia) and Visiting Professorships at the Cancer Center, Sun Yat-sen University (Guangzhou, China) and the Faculty of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing at Universitas Gadjah Mada (Yogyakarta, Indonesia).

During the pandemic Lawrence has worked with colleagues on various aspects of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19. He has been particularly busy with local, national and international media during the pandemic and has contributed to various governmental and national body reviews related to the response to the pandemic and future preparedness.

Tom did his PhD on the topic of avian influenza virus between The Pirbright Institute and Imperial College London. He did a brief first post-doc at UCL on HIV before moving to Imperial to work on swine influenza virus. During the pandemic Tom has largely worked on SARS-CoV-2 and variants at Imperial and part time as an advisor at UKHSA.

Emma Thomson is Clinical Professor of Infectious Diseases at the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research (CVR) and Professor of Emerging Viral Infections at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She trained in infectious diseases and general (internal) medicine in London and carried out her PhD at Imperial College London and the University of Oxford.  She is funded by the MRC, HDR-UK, the UK Rapid Support Team and Scottish government to investigate new and emerging viral infections in the UK and sub-Saharan Africa using metagenomic next generation sequencing approaches. She is responsible for analysing the genetic diversity and phenotype of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in Scotland as part of the COG-UK, ISARIC4C and Genotype2Phenotype consortia. She leads the EVADE and DOVE studies that aim to evaluate vaccine effectiveness to emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants.  She has sequenced a number of viruses, including novel viruses in partnership with the Uganda Virus Research Institute including CCHF, Ebola, HCV, HIV and hantaviruses using metagenomics and target enrichment-based approaches.