New £50m Building For Oxford Vaccine Hub

A donation of £50 million will see the creation of a new Oxford University building, which will become home to the world-leading Jenner Institute team, who were behind the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine.

BBC News reports that the donation, which has come from Serum Life Sciences Ltd, will be Oxford University’s largest-ever gift for vaccines research. Other leading Oxford teams – such as those developing a malaria vaccine – will also eventually move into the new building, which will be named the Poonawalla Vaccines Research Building.

Serum Life Sciences is wholly-owned by the billionaire Poonawalla family, the owners of the Serum Institute of India, who have dedicated their life’s work to the development, manufacture and supply of affordable vaccines to low- and middle-income countries. 

The Poonawalla Vaccines Research Building will share infrastructure and support facilities for scientific research and academic teaching with the recently announced Oxford University Pandemic Sciences Centre.

Combined, they will form a unique hub that aims to contribute to global pandemic preparedness and responsiveness.

The new building will become the new headquarters and main laboratory space of the Jenner Institute, the world-leading academic vaccine institute named after Edward Jenner, the father of vaccination.

Natasha Poonawalla, the chairperson of Serum Life Sciences, said: “Vaccines save lives, and the development of vaccines has been the lifelong focus of the Poonawalla family. We are committed to developing and supplying vaccines to people who need them most.”

She added that in order to make it happen, the organisation has built many scientific collaborations with the world’s leading research institutes, but the donation to build the new life sciences hub will help take the research to the next level.

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