Lakshmi Manoharan

I am a medical doctor from Perth, Western Australia. I have had several years of clinical experience in a variety of settings and specialties. I completed a Masters of science in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and now work at the University of Oxford as a medical epidemiologist at the Epidemic diseases Research Group, a part of the Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health.

My current work is with the multi-institution NIHR projected VEEPED (Vaccine Efficacy and Evaluation of Priority Emerging Diseases) which applies mathematical modelling and infectious disease epidemiology for the design of potential vaccine efficacy studies for emerging diseases. I am focusing on two UK priority diseases, hantavirus and Q- fever. Both are zoonotic diseases and my research centres on the epidemiology and risk factors of these infections. In addition, I am researching the epidemiology and vaccine landscape of COVID-19 (novel coronavirus).

I am interested in the epidemiology of infectious diseases and outbreaks, particularly zoonotic infections, and the social and environmental factors which contribute to these. My other interests lie in effective scientific communication, and the importance of transferring evidence into policy.