Michael Francis

Biography

Michael Francis has over 40 years of experience in vaccine research and development and has published more than 120 scientific papers. He obtained his PhD in viral immunology from the University of Surrey, UK, and began his scientific career at the Wellcome Foundation Foot-and-Mouth Disease Vaccine Laboratories, where he studied the immune response to FMD vaccination. He then joined Wellcome Biotechnology and conducted research on novel vaccines for both human and veterinary diseases, with a particular emphasis on peptide vaccines. He then joined Pitman-Moore and enjoyed a progressive career with Mallinckrodt Veterinary, Schering-Plough Animal Health, Intervet/Schering-Plough and MSD Animal Health. During this time he progressed to become Executive Director of Research and Development and took on responsibility for a broad range of veterinary vaccine projects against viral, bacterial and parasitic diseases, leading to the development of successful commercial vaccines for all major veterinary species. Michael is currently the Managing Director of a specialist vaccine consultancy, BioVacc Consulting Ltd. He was elected as a Fellow of the Institute of Biology and awarded an Honorary Associateship of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, in recognition of his contribution to the field of vaccine development. In addition he is currently a scientific editor of the journal “Research in Veterinary Science” and a member of the Zoonoses and Emerging Livestock Systems Independent Programme Advisory Group (ZIPAG), Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons Science Advisory Panel, the UK Vaccine R&D Network and the Veterinary Vaccinology Network Coordination Group.

Research Interest

Development of novel vaccines for new and emerging diseases. Providing expertise on R&D strategy and the commercial development of vaccines, including new product development, strategic planning, R&D portfolio and pipeline management, product lifecycle management, technical transfer, project planning and reviews, regulatory review, change management, post-acquisition integration, and commercialisation of academic research