Andrew J. McMichael

Biosketch

Andrew J McMichael MB PhD is Emeritus Professor of Molecular Medicine in the Nuffield Department of Medicine Centre for Immuno-Oncology in the University of Oxford. He was formerly Founding Director of the Medical Research Council/Oxford University Human Immunology Unit (1998-2010) and Director of the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine (2000-1012). He was a member of the Scientific Leadership Group of the NIAID Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Development Consortium at Duke University (2005-2025). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society (1992) and of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences (1998) and is a member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation (2004). He is an Honorary Fellow of Trinity College Oxford (2020) , of Harris Manchester College Oxford (2011) and of Gonville and Caius College Cambridge (2023). He was knighted for services to medical science in 2008.

Research Interests

Dr McMichael’s interest in Immunology was inspired by reports in 1971 of the very strong association between HLA-B*27 and ankylosing spondylitis. This was soon enhanced by the MHC restriction findings of Zinkernagel and Doherty. These sparked an interest in anti viral cytotoxic T lymphocyte immunity in humans. Initially studying influenza virus, he showed that virus specific T cells were HLA restricted and protective. Then Alain Townsend in his laboratory showed that anti-viral T cells recognise peptides presented by MHC, including HLA, molecules. Applying these findings to HIV-1, his team identifed the first epitopes, Then they showed that the HIV could escape T cells by mutating these peptides and that this was universal. This led to an ongoing interest in designing vaccines that could avoid such escape.
A parallel interest in innate immunity started with his discovery, with Cesar Milstein, of CD1, and later led to the finding that non polymorphic HLA-E presents a conserved HLA signal peptide to the NKG2 regulatory receptors on NK cells. In addition, HLA-E was found to bind other peptides with low affinity and prime protective T cells, which have therapeutic potential. HLA-E is his current major interest, combining both innate and T cell immunity for immunotherapy.