‘Designing a vaccine that covers all cancers is hard’: biotech pioneer Lindy Durrant

The immunologist who runs Scancell is trialling novel treatments to attack tumours, as well as needle-free Covid jabs

Cancer is my game," says Prof Lindy Durrant, an immunologist, founder and chief executive of Scancell, which is developing vaccines that could offer a needle-free protection against Covid as well as novel treatments against cancer. Founded in 1997 on the back of her Nottingham University research, the Oxford-based company's work on treatments that stimulate the body's immune system to fight cancer and infectious disease has put it in a cluster of promising British biotechnology firms.

While most vaccines are taken preventively, there is no jab to avoid cancer (apart from the HPV one for the virus that triggers most cervical cancer). Probably 50% to 60% of people will get cancer and die of it," says Durrant. There are probably 200 different types of cancer. Each of them has a very different signature. So to design a vaccine that covers them all is really hard."