William Paul Duprex

Duprex stayed on at QUB as a postdoctoral research fellow from 1995 to 1999, studying how measles virus infects the brain,[2][3][4] and served as a lecturer in molecular virology and biochemistry from 1999 to 2010, during which time he studied measles,[5] mumps,[6] canine distemper,[7] and foot-and-mouth disease virus[8] in biocontainment at the Pirbright Institute.[9]

From 2006 to 2007, Duprex worked at Johnson & Johnson as a Principal Scientist and Head of the Department of Emerging Sciences and Technologies, working to create heat-stable vaccines that are more suitable for distributing throughout the developing world.[10] Duprex moved to Boston University in 2010 to take the positions of associate professor of Microbiology and Director of Cell and Tissue Imaging in the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories, where he trained to use "space-suit-virology"[1] in a BSL-4 lab to understand pathogenesis in paramyxoviruses such as measles, mumps, and respiratory syncytial virus in humans, as well as Hendra virus in horses and Newcastle disease virus in chickens.[11] During this time, he won funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges in Global Health to continue his work with heat-stable measles vaccines.[12] In 2018, Duprex became director of the Center for Vaccine Research at the University of Pittsburgh,[9] where he continues to study the evolution of human and animal respiratory viruses such as measles, mumps and SARS-CoV-2, with the practical goals of developing new vaccines for emerging diseases as well as tools that predict viral spillover from animal reservoirs into humans.[9]

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Duprex has used his public profile on Twitter to share information about the virus and promote vaccination, which he had been outspoken about prior to the pandemic.[13] Since COVID-19 emerged, Duprex has appeared as a subject matter expert in television, radio, and print news outlets.[14][15][16][17][18][19][20] Duprex's team began working with live SARS-CoV-2 virus in February 2020,[21] immediately helping to validate a PCR-based COVID-19 test developed by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC).[22] In April 2020, Duprex secured one of the first Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI) grants funding the creation of a COVID-19 vaccine, together with partners at the Pasteur Institute in Paris and Themis Bioscience in Austria.[23] This particular vaccine was designed to use a recombinant measles vaccine as a vector for introducing SARS-CoV-2 spike protein into the body.[24] Merck acquired Themis in June 2020[25] and abandoned all COVID-19 vaccine research in January 2021.[26] Since then, Duprex's team has been focused on understanding how the SARS-CoV-2 virus mutates to create new viral variants,[27] including Delta and Omicron, which the World Health Organization declared variants of concern.[28] With collaborators at Carnegie Mellon University, he is working on improving vaccine delivery systems that can more safely and effectively reach remote parts of the developing world.[29]