Who Is Sarah Gilbert? 10 Things To Know About The Woman Scientist Behind Oxford's COVID-19 Vaccine

Since the onset of the pandemic, our lives have turned upside down. Now, as several vaccines are finally getting approval there is great sense of excitement among people, as they expect to go back to pre-pandemic order pretty soon. Many people have been instrumental in the creation of the vaccines. Of these highly skilled people, Sarah Gilbert is the one all over the news for her remarkable feat. She is the female scientist behind Oxford's COVID-19 vaccine who is being rightfully lauded around the world for her ground-breaking work.

Also Read: Meet 10 Female Scientists Instrumental In Developing COVID-19 Vaccines Around the World

Here are 10 things to know about Sarah Gilbert:

1. Sarah Gilbert is a British vaccinologist and a Professor of Vaccinology at the University of Oxford. She specialises in developing vaccines against influenza and emerging viral pathogens.
2. She is the co-founder of Vaccitech, a biotech company specialising in the development of vaccines and immunotherapies for infectious diseases, cancer, hepatitis B, HPV and prostate cancer and so on.
3. Gilbert was born in Kettering, Northamptonshire in April 1962. Her father worked in the shoe business. Her mother was an English teacher and also a member of the local amateur operatic society. She realised her dream of working in the field of medicine when she was in high school. Sarah graduated from the University of East Anglia with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Sciences. She then moved to the University of Hull to pursue her doctoral degree in genetics and biochemistry of the yeast Rhodosporidium toruloides.
4. After her doctoral degree, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the industry at the Brewing Industry Research Foundation. In 1990, she joined Delta Biotechnology, a bio-pharmaceutical company that manufactured drugs in Nottingham. After various endeavours in research and jobs in between, she became a reader in Vaccinology at Oxford University in 2004. In 2010, she became a professor at the Jenner Institute. Gilbert started work on the design and creation of novel influenza vaccinations with the help of the Wellcome Trust.
5. Gilbert led the development and testing of the universal flu vaccine earlier in 2011. The vaccination was unconventional as it didn’t stimulate anti-body production, but rather triggers the production of T-cells to fight against the flu. She then led the first trial of an Ebola vaccine in 2014, followed by Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).
6. She mostly works on producing many different vaccines using the same technology to reduce time and costs associated with the development of vaccines against many different viruses that have potential to cause outbreaks, such MERS, Nipah and Lassa.
7.  The United Kingdom approved the COVID-19 vaccine she co-developed alongside the Oxford Vaccine Group on December 30, 2020. In an interview with the BBC, she told that she felt that they could use the same approach taken for MERS. She went on with the idea when the Chinese scientists published the genetic code.
8. Sarah had to work day and night since the outbreak of COVID-19. She got work e-mails at 4 am. In the same interview, she also talked about the altruistic approach to ameliorate the situation. “From the beginning, we're seeing it as a race against the virus, not a race against other vaccine developers. We're a university and we're not in this to make money," she said.
9. As stated by her colleagues and friends, she is ‘a conscientious, quiet and determined person and someone with true grit.’ She is also someone who doesn’t enjoy the limelight.
10. She is also a mother to triplets, and her kids participated in the trials of the vaccine. To support her career and family, her partner, Rob Blundell became the primary care-giver.

Also Read: Meet Nita Patel, An American-Indian Scientist Who is Breaking Ground in Vaccinology

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