Simon J. Draper is Professor of Vaccinology and Translational Medicine, Wellcome Trust Senior Fellow and Jenner Investigator based at the University of Oxford. Simon received the Lister Institute Research Prize Fellow in 2018, an award aimed at researchers in the early years of running their own groups .
Simon heads the Blood-Stage Malaria Group at the Jenner institute which focuses on the development of novel and improved approaches to blood-stage malaria vaccine design, as well as aiming to better understand mechanisms of vaccine-induced immunity to blood-stage malaria infection.
Simon was one of the faculty members at the 8th Infectious Diseases in Africa Symposium which took place in November 2018. The immunopaedia team was fortunate to interview him, discussing the current status of malaria vaccines.
Interview by Cheleka AM Mpande