Researcher wins Oxford fellowship

Andrew Highton.
Andrew Highton.
A university of Otago PhD researcher, Andrew Highton, has won a Nuffield postdoctoral fellowship to Oxford University, where he will continue his immunology research.

Mr Highton (25) was ''really excited'' to gain the fellowship, which provides 40,000 (NZ$83,700) a year for at least two years, to undertake research at Oxford University, England.

The Nuffield Dominions Trust at Oxford awards this postdoctoral fellowship every two years to one New Zealander, either a clinician or scientist.

Oxford was ''a great place to advance my career'' and he hoped to conduct ''some ground-breaking research'' there.

Mr Highton grew up in Dunedin, attending Kaikorai Valley College before gaining a bachelor of biomedical science honours degree, majoring in infection and immunity, at Otago University.

He has since been undertaking PhD research in the laboratory of his supervisor, Dr Roslyn Kemp, of the microbiology and immunology department.

At Oxford Mr Highton will continue his research on memory T cells, which are responsible for the function of vaccines.

''My new research will be looking at some virus-specific memory T cells, working with Prof Paul Klenerman, whose group at Oxford works on the immune response to infections such as HIV, hepatitis B and C, affecting hundreds of millions of people worldwide,'' he says.

Dr Kemp said Mr Highton's work in her laboratory had focused on testing the ability of a new vaccine formulation to generate memory T cells, and then measuring the effect of these cells in protecting against colorectal cancer.

This had used a ''new mouse model of cancer'' that he had developed.

He had become a ''wonderful scientist'' and would achieve ''great things'' through the Oxford fellowship, she said.

Mr Highton said colorectal cancer was a ''serious problem'' in New Zealand and Otago, and HIV remained a major international health challenge.

The fellowship provided ''a huge opportunity'', and a high-quality ''starting platform'' for his future research, he said.

john.gibb@odt.co.nz

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