Professor Charles Bangham - Co-Director
Professor Charles Bangham is Chair of Immunology in the Department of Infectious Diseases, within the Faculty of Medicine. Charles qualified in medical sciences at Cambridge University and in clinical medicine at Oxford University and worked as a hospital physician for three years before carrying out a PhD on viral immunology at the MRC National Institute for Medical Research and Oxford University.
In 1995 he was appointed to the Chair of Immunology in Imperial College London and in 2013 Head of the Division of Infectious Diseases. His research has focused on the human T-cell leukaemia virus, HTLV-1. His group discovered the virological synapse - the mechanism by which viruses including HTLV-1, HIV and murine leukaemia virus are transmitted from cell-to-cell. Charles is a Fellow of the Royal Society and Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
Professor Faith Osier - Co-Director
Professor Faith Osier is Chair of Malaria Immunology and Vaccinology in the Department of Life Sciences, within the Faculty of Natural Sciences. Having trained as a clinician at the University of Nairobi and worked extensively in Kenya through KEMRI|Wellcome Trust Research Programme, her career has also taken her to the Burnet Institute in Melbourne, Australia; University Hospital Heidelberg, Germany; and the University of Oxford. She served as Executive Director of the IAVI Human Immunology Laboratory until June 2022.
Professor Osier’s research aims to make malaria history through the development of highly effective vaccines. It builds on the observation that humans can acquire immunity to malaria and that the passive transfer of malaria-specific immunoglobulins is curative. Her teams dissect the molecular characteristics of the protective immune response against malaria in population studies in Africa and using the controlled human malaria infection platform.
Faith is the current President of the International Union of Immunological Societies (> 60,000 members globally) – the first African and only second woman in this role. She has won multiple prestigious prizes including the Royal Society Pfizer Award, the Sofja Kovalevskaja Award from the Humboldt foundation and the UKRI-MRC/DFID African Research Leader Award. She is a 2018 TED Fellow and a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences. She serves on Boards and Expert Committees at the WHO, Wellcome, UKRI, MVI-PATH & BactiVac, and has a global footprint as a keynote & motivational speaker. She is an Official #TOGETHERBAND Ambassador for the UN Sustainable Development Goal 3: Good Health & Well-being. She is passionate about emerging African scientists as key agents of change, delivering the health interventions our continent urgently needs.
Dr Andy Edwards - Director of Postgraduate Education
Dr Andy Edwards is Senior Lecturer in Molecular Microbiology within the Department of Infectious Diseases and will be the deputy-director of the Imperial Centre of Excellence for Bacterial Resistance Biology from September 2022. His research interests include fundamental studies of antibiotic mode of action, resistance and tolerance, and early-stage translational studies that aim to develop novel anti-bacterial therapeutic approaches. His work is multidisciplinary and involves collaborations with chemists, engineers and clinicians.
He has extensive experience in leading, designing and delivering postgraduate education, including an 8-year term as the Co-Director and then Director of the MRes Bacterial Pathogenesis and Infection programme (2012-2020); serving as module lead of the iBSc Immunity and Infection programme (2019-); co-leading of the ‘Targeting antimicrobial resistance’ module for the BSc Medical Biosciences course; and contributing to teaching of the MBBS programme and courses in Department of Life sciences. In recent years, Dr. Edwards facilitated the transition to remote teaching, which brought recognised benefits such as enabling a wider learning base. He focusses on a dynamic learning experience encompassing active learning approaches such as journal clubs, critical analysis and student presentations. In 2022, he was awarded a Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy via Imperial’s STAR initiative.
Dr Mel Bradnam - Institute Manager
After completing a PhD and postdoc in molecular biology, Mel worked as a medical writer and grant writer/senior analyst in California.
Prior to joining Imperial in 2021, she held positions at UCL as a Strategic Research Facilitator for the School of Life and Medical Sciences and (as a secondment) as Manager for the CRUK UCL Centre.
Natasha Khaleeq - Communication Officer
Natasha has a BSc in Biology and, after completing Imperial's Science Communication MSc, made science documentaries for Channel 4, ITV and Discovery. Prior to joining us in 2022, she worked in the Film and High-End TV industry as an Assistant Director on projects such as The Batman (2022) and Luther (2023). Natasha is currently a member of BAFTA Connect and still freelances in the industry.
