Melita Gordon

Last updated
Melita Gordon
Alma mater University of Oxford
Queen's University Belfast
Scientific career
Institutions University of Liverpool
Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust

Melita Alison Gordon CMG FRCP is a gastroenterologist who works on invasive gut pathogens and tropical gastrointestinal disease. She leads the Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust Salmonella and Enterics Group. Gordon was awarded the British Society of Gastroenterology Sir Francis Avery Jones Research Medal in 2011.

Contents

Education and early career

Gordon completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Cambridge. She completed her clinical qualifications at the University of Oxford and eventually specialised in internal medicine Queen's University Belfast. She has since worked in Zambia, Sheffield and Liverpool. [1] In 1993 she was awarded the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine Blacklock medal. [2] In 1997 she was appointed a Wellcome Trust Clinical Fellow and Lecturer. [3] She moved to Malawi in 1997, where she lived until 2005 and was part of the Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust. [4]

Research

In 2008 Gordon was made an NHS Higher Education Funding Council for England Clinical Fellow at the University of Liverpool. Her early work was the first to show how Salmonella becomes a lethal disease for HIV-positive people. [5] She was promoted to Reader in 2012 and Professor in 2015. In 2015 she returned to Malawi where she leads the Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust Salmonella and Enterics Group. [6] Gordon's research focuses on the development of vaccinations to protect against invasive bloodstream diseases caused by two groups of Salmonellae; typhoid fever and Invasive Non-Typhoidal Salmonellosis (iNTS). [7] Gordon is committed to identifying novel vaccinations that can protect children in Africa from bacterial disease.

iNTS is a rare bacterial disease that is caused by extraintestinal infection of certain serotypes of Salmonella . iNTS kills around 80,000 people each year. It is more likely to occur in patients with HIV infection or malaria and the majority of people who suffer from iNTS are in Sub-Saharan Africa. [8] In 2011 Gordon was awarded the British Society of Gastroenterology Sir Francis Avery Jones Research Medal and in 2012 the Shire Awards for Gastrointestinal Excellence prize for Excellence in Gastroenterology. [9] She became Director of the World Gastroenterology Organisation Blantyre Training Center in 2016. [10]

In 2018 Gordon led Africa's launch of the new typhoid conjugate vaccine, and successfully vaccinated 24,000 children in Malawi in the first six months. [11] The first child, Golden Kondowe, received the first vaccination in Ndirande, Blantyre. [12] [13] The Typhoid Vaccine Acceleration Consortium (TyVAC) study was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and was the result of twenty years of research of Salmonella in Malawi. [11] [14] The vaccine, which contains the Vi antigen [15] (a part of the Salmonella Typhi bacterium that helps it cause disease), is expected to protect against typhoid and other infections. [16] [17] She works with local scientists, health workers and the Malawi Ministry of Health. [11] The vaccine was shown to protect 81% of children from becoming infected with typhoid fever. [11]

Gordon and the University of Liverpool Centre for Global Vaccine Research were awarded a multi-million pound research grant to establish the Horizon 2020 Vacci-iNTS consortium. [18] The consortium looks to develop new vaccines and research the financial and social impact of iNTS on communities in Africa impacted by the disease. [18]

In 2019 Gordon was made a National Institute for Health Research Global Research Professor. [19] Her research has been supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust, British Society of Gastroenterology and Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. [20]

Selected publications

Her publications include:

Personal life

Gordon is married to Stephen Gordon, former Director of the Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust Programme in Malawi. [21] [22] [23]

In the 2024 King's Birthday Honours, she was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) "for services to global health". [24]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Typhoid fever</span> Disease caused by the bacteria Salmonella Typhi

Typhoid fever, also known simply as typhoid, is a disease caused by Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi bacteria, also called Salmonella typhi. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several days. This is commonly accompanied by weakness, abdominal pain, constipation, headaches, and mild vomiting. Some people develop a skin rash with rose colored spots. In severe cases, people may experience confusion. Without treatment, symptoms may last weeks or months. Diarrhea may be severe, but is uncommon. Other people may carry it without being affected, but are still contagious. Typhoid fever is a type of enteric fever, along with paratyphoid fever. Salmonella enterica Typhi is believed to infect and replicate only within humans.

<i>Salmonella</i> Genus of bacteria

Salmonella is a genus of rod-shaped (bacillus) gram-negative bacteria of the family Enterobacteriaceae. The two known species of Salmonella are Salmonella enterica and Salmonella bongori. S. enterica is the type species and is further divided into six subspecies that include over 2,650 serotypes. Salmonella was named after Daniel Elmer Salmon (1850–1914), an American veterinary surgeon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wellcome Trust</span> British healthcare research charity established in 1936

The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome to fund research to improve human and animal health. The aim of the Trust is to "support science to solve the urgent health challenges facing everyone." It had a financial endowment of £29.1 billion in 2020, making it the fourth wealthiest charitable foundation in the world. In 2012, the Wellcome Trust was described by the Financial Times as the United Kingdom's largest provider of non-governmental funding for scientific research, and one of the largest providers in the world. According to their annual report, the Wellcome Trust spent GBP £1.1 billion on charitable activities across their 2019/2020 financial year. According to the OECD, the Wellcome Trust's financing for 2019 development increased by 22% to US$327 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salmonellosis</span> Infection caused by Salmonella bacteria

Salmonellosis is a symptomatic infection caused by bacteria of the Salmonella type. It is the most common disease to be known as food poisoning, these are defined as diseases, usually either infectious or toxic in nature, caused by agents that enter the body through the ingestion of food. In humans, the most common symptoms are diarrhea, fever, abdominal cramps, and vomiting. Symptoms typically occur between 12 hours and 36 hours after exposure, and last from two to seven days. Occasionally more significant disease can result in dehydration. The old, young, and others with a weakened immune system are more likely to develop severe disease. Specific types of Salmonella can result in typhoid fever or paratyphoid fever. Typhoid fever and paratyphoid fever are specific types of salmonellosis, known collectively as enteric fever, and are, respectively, caused by salmonella typhi & paratyphi bacteria, which are only found in humans. Most commonly, salmonellosis cases arise from salmonella bacteria from animals, and chicken is a major source for these infections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conjugate vaccine</span> Type of vaccine

A conjugate vaccine is a type of subunit vaccine which combines a weak antigen with a strong antigen as a carrier so that the immune system has a stronger response to the weak antigen.

John Bennett Robbins was a senior investigator at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), best known for his contribution to the development of the vaccine against bacterial meningitis Hib)) with his colleague Rachel Schneerson. He conducted research on the Bethesda, Maryland campus of the NIH from 1970 until his retirement at the age of 80 in 2012. During his tenure, he worked in the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the Food and Drug Administration’s biologics laboratories on location.

The Vi capsular polysaccharide vaccine is a typhoid vaccine recommended by the World Health Organization for the prevention of typhoid. The vaccine was first licensed in the US in 1994 and is made from the purified Vi capsular polysaccharide from the Ty2 Salmonella Typhi strain; it is a subunit vaccine.

<i>Salmonella enterica <span style="font-style:normal;">subsp.</span> enterica</i> Subspecies of bacterium

Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica is a subspecies of Salmonella enterica, the rod-shaped, flagellated, aerobic, Gram-negative bacterium. Many of the pathogenic serovars of the S. enterica species are in this subspecies, including that responsible for typhoid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gordon Dougan</span>

Gordon Dougan is a Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge and head of pathogen research and a member of the board of management at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge, United Kingdom. He is also a Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge. During his career, Dougan has pioneered work on enteric diseases and been heavily involved in the movement to improve vaccine usage in developing countries. In this regard he was recently voted as one of the top ten most influential people in the vaccine world by people working in the area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Thomas Ryan</span> American microbiologist

Edward Thomas Ryan is an American microbiologist, immunologist, and physician at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital. Ryan served as president of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from 2009 to 2010. Ryan is Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Director of Global Infectious Diseases at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Ryan's research and clinical focus has been on infectious diseases associated with residing in, immigrating from, or traveling through resource-limited areas. Ryan is a Fellow of the American Society of Microbiology, the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, the American College of Physicians, and the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Sharon Jayne Peacock is a British microbiologist who is Professor of Public Health and Microbiology in the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge. Peacock also sits on Cambridge University Council.

Faith Hope Among’in Osier is a Kenyan immunologist, paediatrician and educator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Mwandumba</span> African professor of medicine

Henry Charles Mwandumba is an African Professor of Medicine and the Director of the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Programme. He works on the tuberculosis phagosome in the University of Malawi College of Medicine, and serves as President of the Federation of African Immunological Societies. In 2019 Mwandumba was awarded the Royal Society Africa Prize.

Kathleen Maletic Neuzil is the Director of the Center for Vaccine Development at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of typhoid fever</span>

In 2000, typhoid fever caused an estimated 21.7 million illnesses and 217,000 deaths. It occurs most often in children and young adults between 5 and 19 years old. In 2013, it resulted in about 161,000 deaths – down from 181,000 in 1990. Infants, children, and adolescents in south-central and Southeast Asia experience the greatest burden of illness. Outbreaks of typhoid fever are also frequently reported from sub-Saharan Africa and countries in Southeast Asia. In the United States, about 400 cases occur each year, and 75% of these are acquired while traveling internationally.

Elizabeth Lucy Corbett is a British epidemiologist who is Professor of Tropical Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Her research investigates the regulation of tuberculosis in HIV prevalent populations and improving access to HIV self-testing.

A human challenge study, also called a challenge trial or controlled human infection model (CHIM), is a type of clinical trial for a vaccine or other pharmaceutical involving the intentional exposure of the test subject to the condition tested. Human challenge studies may be ethically controversial because they involve exposing test subjects to dangers beyond those posed by potential side effects of the substance being tested. Controlled human infection studies are also used to study viruses and immune responses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Crump</span> New Zealand-born infectious diseases physician, microbiologist, epidemiologist

John Andrew Crump MB ChB, MD, DTM&H, FRACP, FRCPA, FRCP is a New Zealand-born infectious diseases physician, medical microbiologist, and epidemiologist. He is Professor of Medicine, Pathology, and Global Health at the University of Otago and an adjunct professor of medicine, Pathology, and Global Health at Duke University. He served as inaugural co-director of the Otago Global Health Institute, one of the university's research centres. His primary research interest is fever in the tropics, focusing on invasive bacterial diseases and bacterial zoonoses.

Sir Andrew John Pollard is the Ashall Professor of Infection & Immunity at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford. He is an Honorary Consultant Paediatrician at John Radcliffe Hospital and the Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group. He is the Chief Investigator on the University of Oxford COVID-19 Vaccine trials and has led research on vaccines for many life-threatening infectious diseases including typhoid fever, Neisseria meningitidis, Haemophilus influenzae type b, streptococcus pneumoniae, pertussis, influenza, rabies, and Ebola.

The Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, is a tertiary referral and teaching hospital in Malawi, situated in Blantyre. It provides care to the surrounding district hospitals, health clinics, and private medical facilities. Officially, the hospital has 1350 beds available. In 1958, the hospital was given Queen Elizabeth II's name.

References

  1. ↑ "CaT Steering Committee". Take on Typhoid. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  2. ↑ "Melita Gordon - University of Liverpool". www.liverpool.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  3. ↑ "Alumni - Wellcome Trust Liverpool Glasgow Centre for Global Health Research". www.liverpoolwttc.org.uk. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  4. ↑ "Malawi - Wellcome Trust". Yale School of Public Health. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  5. ↑ "How HIV Turns Food-poisoning Into Lethal Infection". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  6. ↑ "Melita Gordon". www.mlw.mw. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  7. ↑ www-core (webteam). "New types of African Salmonella associated with lethal infection". www.sanger.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  8. ↑ Stanaway, Jeffrey D.; Parisi, Andrea; Sarkar, Kaushik; Blacker, Brigette F.; Reiner, Robert C.; Hay, Simon I.; Nixon, Molly R.; Dolecek, Christiane; James, Spencer L.; Mokdad, Ali H.; Abebe, Getaneh (2019-12-01). "The global burden of non-typhoidal salmonella invasive disease: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017". The Lancet Infectious Diseases. 19 (12): 1312–1324. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(19)30418-9. ISSN   1473-3099. PMC   6892270 . PMID   31562022.
  9. ↑ "National prize for gastroenterology team - Articles - School of Life Sciences - University of Liverpool". www.liverpool.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  10. ↑ "Blantyre, Malawi | World Gastroenterology Organisation". www.worldgastroenterology.org. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  11. 1 2 3 4 "First child vaccinated with typhoid conjugate vaccine in Africa - News - University of Liverpool" . Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  12. ↑ AfricaNews (2018-02-27). "Malawi is first African nation using new WHO approved typhoid vaccine". Africanews. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  13. ↑ "2018 News | University of Maryland School of Medicine". www.medschool.umaryland.edu. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  14. ↑ "Clinical Efficacy of Typhoid Conjugate Vaccine (Vi-TCV) Among Children Age 9 Months Through 12 Years in Blantyre, Malawi - ICH GCP - Clinical Trials Registry". ichgcp.net. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  15. ↑ Patel, Priyanka D.; Patel, Pratiksha; Liang, Yuanyuan; Meiring, James E.; Misiri, Theresa; Mwakiseghile, Felistas; Tracy, J. Kathleen; Masesa, Clemens; Msuku, Harrison; Banda, David; Mbewe, Maurice; Henrion, Marc; Adetunji, Fiyinfolu; Simiyu, Kenneth; Rotrosen, Elizabeth; Birkhold, Megan; Nampota, Nginache; Nyirenda, Osward M.; Kotloff, Karen; Gmeiner, Markus; Dube, Queen; Kawalazira, Gift; Laurens, Matthew B.; Heyderman, Robert S.; Gordon, Melita A.; Neuzil, Kathleen M.; TyVAC Malawi Team (2021). "Safety and Efficacy of a Typhoid Conjugate Vaccine in Malawian Children". New England Journal of Medicine. 385 (12): 1104–1115. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa2035916. PMC   8202713 . PMID   34525285.
  16. ↑ "University of Liverpool - stream.liv.ac.uk - Video and audio streaming & sharing". stream.liv.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  17. ↑ Typhoid vaccine may protect against other infections , retrieved 2019-12-13
  18. 1 2 "Liverpool partners in new African Salmonella vaccine project - News - University of Liverpool" . Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  19. ↑ "YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 2019-12-13.
  20. ↑ "Melita Gordon - University of Liverpool". www.liverpool.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  21. ↑ "MRC Declaration of Interest". MRC. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  22. ↑ "Drs Stephen and Melita Gordon – Malawi". St Brigid's Third World Group. 2018-08-20. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  23. ↑ https://www.lstmed.ac.uk/news-events/news/directorship-of-mlw
  24. ↑ "No. 64423". The London Gazette (Supplement). 15 June 2024. p. B3.
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