Dr Pramila Rijal has been awarded £125,000 from the Academy's Springboard programme, in partnership with the Government's Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Wellcome, and the British Heart Foundation.
This award comes at a pivotal stage in my career, enabling me to accelerate translational research to understand immune response and improve flu vaccines in order to protect more people from future outbreaks. - Pramila Rijal
Springboard awards support researchers to take their first steps as independent group leaders, testing bold ideas with the potential to improve lives. For Pramila, the award will allow her to advance work on better and more broadly protective influenza vaccines.
Influenza remains a major global public health threat, causing substantial annual morbidity and mortality and carrying an ever-present risk of new pandemics.
More effective and broadly protective vaccines are essential both to mitigate seasonal epidemics and to strengthen pandemic preparedness. Pramila's work aims to develop broader-reactivity influenza vaccines that can better protect vulnerable populations and reduce the impact of future outbreaks.
The Academy of Medical Sciences has awarded £6.7 million to 55 early career researchers at 38 institutions across the UK. Read more on the Academy of Medical Sciences website.