Professor Brendan Wren, Co-Director of the Vaccine Centre London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Brendan Wren gained a PhD in biophysical chemistry and published seminal papers on the effect of ionizing radiation on DNA. He then changed subject discipline and took a post-doctoral position at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London. During this time he was the first to publish molecular cloning studies on Clostridium difficile, Campylobacter jejuni and Helicobacter pylori.

In 1999 he moved to the LSHTM and was awarded a chair in Microbial Pathogenesis where he led the Campylobacter jejuni genome project. This resulted in the discovery of glycosylation systems in Campylobacter that was exploited to develop a novel vaccine technology platform (bioconjugation) for the low-cost production of glycoconjugate vaccines, including poultry vaccines to reduce Campylobacter in the food chain. His primary research interest includes the molecular characterization of bacterial virulence determinants and the evolution of virulence. More recently his group has investigated amoebae as a potential source and route of transmission of Campylobacter and an evolutionary training ground to enhance the virulence of the pathogen during human Campylobacteriosis. He has authored over 450 scientific peer-reviewed publications and filed 20 patents.

The lecture will reflect on our progress in understanding the pathogenesis, and survival of Campylobacter jejuni in the past 25 years, and our future approaches to reduce Campylobacter in the food chain.