British physician
Eleanor Barnes is a British physician at the John Radcliffe Hospital and a Professor of Hepatology and Experimental Medicine at the University of Oxford. She has studied hepatitis C and the development of the development of HCV vaccines. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and serves as the lead for hepatology at the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Network.[1]
Early life and education
Barnes has said that she was interested in science as a child.[2] She decided to study medicine at university, and eventually trained at St Bartholomew's Hospital.[2] She completed an intercalated bachelor's degree in anthropology and philosophy.[2] After graduating, she worked as a medical resident at the Royal Free Hospital, where she decided to specialise in hepatology and gastroenterology. Determined to pursue a career in research, Barnes worked unpaid for three months, during which time she obtained data that she used to apply for a fellowship from the Medical Research Council.[3] She was a doctoral researcher at the University of Oxford. Her doctoral research considered T cell and dendritic cell function.[4]
Research and career
Barners' research considers T cell immunology. She is focused on the translation of laboratory findings to clinical environments. Barnes worked as a Medical Research Council Senior Fellow at the University of Oxford, and eventually was appointed lead of herpetology in the Thames Valley.[5][6] She studied why 80% of patients with hepatitis C get chronic infection.[5] Barnes identified that the nature of the T cell response determines which pathway a patient goes down. This observation led Barnes to develop an T-cell vaccine to prevent hepatitis C infection. The vaccine is based on adenoviral vectors, which host the non-structural proteins of hepatitis C from a genotype 1B strain.[5] There are seven major hepatitis C strains, which presents considerable challenges for the development of vaccines.[5] Barnes was elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2018.[7]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Barnes studied the design, effectiveness and implementation of the COVID-19 vaccine.[8] She showed that patients who suffered from COVID-19 were likely to be impacted by liver problems.[9]
Personal life
Barnes is married with two children.[5]
