Introducing... Emma Wall

Tell us about your career so far 

I am a clinician-scientist specialising in Infectious Disease. I have always been interested in how the host immune response influences outcomes from different infections, particularly in clinically vulnerable people, and how we can target the resulting tissue damage to improve treatment.

I graduated in medicine from Bristol University. After post-graduate clinical training I took an extended gap year for 2 years to Australia and Uganda, working in large referral hospitals and seeing the impact of social inequality and the HIV pandemic on patients with severe infections. When I returned to the UK, I started specialist training in Infectious Diseases, working in both London and Cambridge.

I was awarded a Wellcome Trust clinical PhD Fellowship in global health in Liverpool and Malawi, followed by post-graduate clinical and research training at UCL and UCLH, working on the pathogenesis of bacterial meningitis. I have been a UCLH consultant since 2018 and clinical research fellow at the Crick since 2020.

I joined the Wilkinson lab at the Crick in 2020 to continue my meningitis work, however that work was soon disrupted by COVID-19. In 2021 was appointed to lead the Legacy Study, a UCLH-Crick partnership studying immune responses to COVID-19.

This has been a very unusual, fast-paced but highly enjoyable role. Legacy has developed into a large collaborative group based at both UCLH and the Crick. We have been working hard over the last few years to generate data to understand the efficacy of vaccines against new SARS-CoV-2 variants and emerging viruses such as Influenza H5.

I am very proud that we have generated important data to support policy decision making during the COVID pandemic and continue to advise on better preparedness for next time.

How has your clinical experience shaped your research interests? 

My research work, from lethal meningitis to post-COVID syndrome/Long COVID, is continually informed by my clinical experiences in the hospital treating patients. My work uses clinical data and samples from patients with acute or chronic infections to interrogate how the host-pathogen interaction, and subsequent immune damage on tissues impacts on recovery.

My goal is to translate these insights into better vaccines and treatments for people with severe infections

How will your new role be different from what you were previously working on at the Crick and UCLH? 

Overall, my work for the UCLH-Crick partnership will not change significantly. The pace of the Legacy Study has changed as population immunity to COVID-19 has grown, which has given me time develop more in-depth research questions around COVID-19 immunology and Long COVID.

My new role allows me to develop my own research programme, building out from the unique COVID-19 bioresources we’ve developed at the Crick.

Working under three different institutions, how will you bring together your work across the Crick, QMUL, and UCLH? 

Like most clinical-academics, I am used to working across different institutions wearing different hats. We have a fantastic partnership between the Crick and UCLH on COVID-19, that encompasses both Legacy and our Long COVID clinical trial STIMULATE-ICP.

I intend to extend my research work beyond the UCLH-Crick partnership at QMUL, where my own lab will give me the time and space to develop research questions arising from our Legacy work.

It is a very exciting time to start at QMUL, as they have undertaken a major expansion in infection research at the Blizard Institute, which my lab will be part of. Overall, I see a lot of synergy across the three different institutions, and I am excited to make new connections as I develop my own research programme.

And finally – in an alternate universe where you weren't a researcher, what would you be doing? 

This is a tough one – between a marine biologist, artist and shoe designer (I have size 11 feet and find it nearly impossible to buy shoes).

Find out more about Emma's work.