Dr Estee Török on tackling Covid-19

Dr Estee Török, is a Honorary Consultant in infectious Diseases and Microbiology and Principal Investigator at Cambridge University Hospital, talks about her experiences and passion for infectious diseases, microbiology and genomics, including setting up and leading a novel coronavirus vaccine ‘COV002’ trial, in Cambridge.

Dr Török explains: “The phase 2/3 trial of the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford, which is being tested in over 10,000 healthy volunteers in 19 UK centres. We rapidly assembled a team of over 70 research staff in three NHS Trusts (Cambridge University Hospitals, Royal Papworth Hospital and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust) in Cambridgeshire. We screened over 500 healthcare workers and vaccinated over 300 of them in just over three weeks. The results of this trial will also give us vital information on the safety and efficacy of this vaccine, production of which is already being scaled up by AstraZeneca.

The biggest challenges we face relating to this pandemic are to prevent people from becoming infected with SARS-CoV-2, and to find treatments that can prevent the development of severe COVID-19 disease and save lives. Developing an effective vaccine really is key to controlling the pandemic”

Jo Piper, NIHR Cambridge CRF Nurse Manager, lead the support and facilitation of this trial here at our Clinical Research Facility, photographed above with:

Dr Ben Underwood (CPFT), Dr Mark Toshner (RPH), Dr Estee Török (CUH), Caroline Saunders (NIHR Cambridge CRF Clinical Operations Director) and  Carla Ribeiro and Lorinda Pickup (NIHR Cambridge CRF Research Sisters).

To read more about Dr Török and trying to tackle COVID-19, the full article can be found on University of Cambridge website