Blizard Institute welcomes world-leading team of virologists

10 July 2025

This dynamic group brings groundbreaking discoveries on viruses like HIV and SARS-CoV-2, exploring how they manipulate immunity and drive inflammation in human disease. Their arrival will not only expand our research capacity but also strengthen research-led teaching, with plans for new postgraduate programmes and hands-on opportunities for early career researchers. They are passionate about inspiring the next generation of scientists, both within academia and through innovative public engagement activities, and will play a key role in growing our community through mentorship and new recruitment initiatives.

Joining us are Professor Greg Towers, recently elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences this year who is a molecular virologist working on innate immunity and viral infections including HIV and SARS-CoV-2; Professor Clare Jolly, a viral cell biologist studying how HIV reprogrammes T cell biology and how this leads to AIDS; Dr Matt Whelan, a cell biologist using state of the art microscopes to understand how viruses get inside the cell nucleus and what they can do to manipulate our cellular machinery from inside; Professor Richard Milne, a virologist and educator who works closely with Greg and Clare to bring a research-led teaching approach; and Professor Emma Wall, a clinician-scientist in Infectious Diseases interested in understanding how we can optimise people’s immune response to infections and vaccines. They will be joined by around 15 postdocs, PhD students, and lab managers.

Expanding infection research in east London and beyond

"Our goal will be to contribute to a major expansion in infection and immunity research and teaching. By moving as a group, we bring a critical mass of investigators which we will expand through new recruitments."

East London offers unrivalled research opportunities in infection, reflecting high rates of socio-economic deprivation, travel to and from low/middle-income countries and low immunisation uptake. Barts Health NHS Trust sees among the highest rates of tuberculosis, HIV, viral hepatitis and measles in the UK. Accordingly, the Blizard Institute, just a stone’s throw away from the Royal London hospital, has long been home to internationally recognised research on viral hepatitis (NEJM), HIV (NEJM), monkeypox (NEJM), bacterial infection including tuberculosis (NEJM), global health, fungal biology and innate immunology. 

Two major initiatives now build on this success to build critical mass in infection research: We recently established the Queen Mary & Barts Health Tuberculosis Centre, supported by a £4.6m award from Barts Charity with a vision to deliver step-changes in scientific understanding, diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis infection and disease in east London, the UK and internationally. The next step is bringing on board this team of internationally recognised researchers in virology.

Professor Greg Towers said: "We think that the Blizard Institute is an amazing place for discovery science. It has great facilities, a huge amount of lab space including CL2 and CL3 containment, core provision of key technologies eg RNAi screening, microscopy, genomics and flow cytometry. Our goal will be to contribute to a major expansion in infection and immunity research and teaching. This is already off to a great start with the newly funded TB centre. We hope to bring our track record of mentoring junior scientists through to independent fellowships and positions and the Blizard institute will provide the commitment and space to do that. By moving as a group, we bring a critical mass of investigators which we will expand through new recruitments."

Their research uses viruses as tools to study inflammation and immune responses, processes central to many human diseases. By understanding how viruses manipulate immunity, they aim to uncover new treatment targets for conditions ranging from heart disease to dementia.

Advancing research, teaching, and public engagement in infection and immunity

We are exploring how AI and breakthroughs in structural biology can help predict pandemics by uncovering how viruses evolve to evade human immunity, transforming our understanding and opening up entirely new possibilities.

The team has made major advances in understanding how viruses evade immunity. Dr Matt Whelan and Professor Clare Jolly discovered how HIV alters the nuclear pore to let its capsid enter the nucleus intact, protecting it from immune detection, revealing new ways viruses exploit host cells. Professor Greg Towers identified how HIV suppresses innate immunity to become pandemic, and, with Clare, showed SARS-CoV-2 uses similar tactics. Their latest work suggests SARS-CoV-2 may evolve new proteins to adapt to other species. Meanwhile, Professor Emma Wall and her UCLH-Crick team are investigating why COVID-19 vaccines offer broader protection in some people and are working on next-generation vaccine designs. They are also studying the causes of long COVID, with results from their STIMULATE-ICP trial due later this year. Greg said: "Looking forward, we are exploring how AI and breakthroughs in structural biology can help predict pandemics by uncovering how viruses evolve to evade human immunity. This approach is transforming our understanding of viral evolution, protein function, and drug development, opening up entirely new possibilities."

The team brings strong research funding and collaborative plans. Matt Whelan holds a Wellcome Early Career Fellowship, while Greg Towers and Clare Jolly hold Wellcome Investigator Awards, with Greg also holding a Wellcome Discovery Award with Oxford’s Peijun Zhang. Greg and Clare are applying for new funding with UCL’s David Selwood to develop broad-spectrum antivirals. Emma Wall is funded by the UCLH-Crick partnership and holds major awards from Wellcome, NIHR, and UKRI for COVID-19 vaccine and Long COVID research, with new funding bids underway for drug discovery in Long COVID. The team also plans to seek Centre-level funding to expand infection research at the Blizard Institute.

The team’s arrival also signals exciting plans to expand teaching in infection and immunity. They aim to develop an MRes or similar programme closely aligned with our growing research strengths, with a strong emphasis on involving PhD students and postdocs in teaching for career development.

With extensive experience in engaging schools through hands-on activities in infectious diseases, the team is excited to collaborate with the Centre for the Cell, the first science education centre in the world aimed at school-age children to be located within working biomedical research laboratories. They also look forward to exploring opportunities to engage adult audiences and spark curiosity in discovery science. Emma plans to continue to build on her work engaging with the public on both COVID-19 vaccines and Long COVID.

More information

• Find out more about the team's plans in our Q&A interview, where they get into more detail about their works and plans for the future at the Blizard Institute.