Dr Teresa Lambe
It would be difficult to overstate the global significance of the COVID-19 vaccines.
The makers of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 have worked hard to develop a vaccine that could be affordable to people all over the world.
Irish scientist, Dr Teresa Lambe was a crucial part of the development, testing and clinical progression of vaccines which now help to protect the world from a deadly virus.
Fundamental disease research
Lambe says that she was drawn to science as she is “naturally inquisitive.” Born and raised in Kilcullen, Kildare, Lambe went on to study at UCD. After completing her PhD there, she moved to the UK. Initially, she was doing “fundamental research — why do some people get certain diseases and why other people don’t.”
Vaccine research
She enjoyed the work, but, she says “I wanted to see more of an impact. I wanted to see the work that I was doing making a difference. I moved into vaccine research and started working on vaccines. I actually started looking at ’flu vaccines, especially ones that wouldn’t need an update or need changes every year. I also started looking into viruses that cause haemorrhagic fevers and are particularly deadly, and generally more of these viruses happen in low/middle income countries and there’s not as much investment in vaccines against them.”
Rapid vaccine approach
This was the work that helped develop the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. Lambe says her vaccine work “was ongoing when COVID struck at the end of 2019, start of 2020. Myself and Sarah Gilbert wanted to demonstrate the type of technology we were using could be scalable, made quickly, and could be a rapid vaccine approach, so we had conversations about making a vaccine against COVID and that’s what laid the groundwork for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines.”
Lambe has been internationally recognised for her work on the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. She says of the Presidential Distinguished Service Award, “This award is of particular significance to me as it has come from my home country, which made it especially meaningful.”
Ireland is home
Although Lambe has lived outside Ireland for many years she says, “Ireland is home. Always has been, always will be.” She mentions that when she first moved to the UK, she planned to return to Ireland but as is so often the case, life had different plans.
She has now worked at the University of Oxford for over 20 years. She says of her life in Oxford, “I’m very very lucky because within Oxford it’s a very multi-national. A very dynamic community, there’s so many nationalities within Oxford. There isn’t a close knit Irish diaspora that are supporting me, but rather a number of individuals from different countries that I work with closely that have kind of formed a second family, or support network.”
Research in Ireland
“I always look to foster relations with Ireland and Irish people, as there’s a certain commonality there. I still look to Ireland and what is being done in terms of the type of research that is being conducted there.”
Dr Teresa Lambe was awarded a Presidential Distinguished Services Award in 2022 in the Science, Technology and Innovation category.