The Quantitative Research Group is a consortium of scientific researchers committed to developing and applying modern quantitative methods to generate evidence that informs global health and vaccine strategies. The group is co-led by Professors Merryn Voysey, Xinxue Liu, and Daniel O’Connor. 

Our Impact

We collaborate on cutting-edge clinical trials and observational studies, both within our institution and in partnership with national and international organisations.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we led the study design and analysis for the pivotal trial of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (AZD1222), resulting in the World Health Organisation’s Emergency Use Listing (EUL) and emergency use authorisation in numerous countries worldwide. Following this landmark trial, Professor Voysey led the research on correlates of protection (CoP) for COVID-19, with findings published in Nature Medicine in 2021. This work, cited over 1,000 times, played a crucial role in accelerating vaccine development during the pandemic. The group’s impact on CoP research has continued beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, we are leading multiple CoP projects that leverage our expertise in statistics and bioinformatics. These projects encompass diseases such as typhoid, paratyphoid, non-typhoidal Salmonella, COVID-19 (T cell protection), shigella, and group B streptococcus.

Our contributions extend beyond research, as we actively shape the scientific landscape through our roles on NIHR funding committees and the UKRI Talent Peer Review College, and the British Society of Immunology Congress. Additionally, we play a vital role in global vaccine policy for enteric fever vaccines and Group B streptococcus vaccines through membership of World Health Organisation advisory groups, and the UK Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.

Our Projects

Our current innovative projects include:

Bayesian Dose-Finding Algorithms: Advancing human challenge studies through sophisticated statistical approaches to minimise sample size and cost.

Protective Antibody Levels: Developing statistical methods for analysing case-control studies to determine the protective thresholds for group B streptococcus vaccines.

Vaccine Efficacy Predictions: Enhancing our understanding of vaccines through predictive modelling.
Correlates of Protection: Identifying correlates of protection for vaccine development across multiple platforms.

SARS-CoV-2 Immunity: Investigating the role of T cells in protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Seroefficacy Assessment: Utilizing paired capsular polysaccharide antibodies to evaluate the efficacy of conjugate vaccines.

Human Microbiome Research: Conducting metagenomic analyses to understand the human microbiome and resistome, and their response to various antibiotics.

Multi-omics Analysis of Immunological Data: Leveraging large datasets (transcriptomics, cytokines, clinical data) to uncover immunological correlates of protection following vaccination or infection.