Dr Alex Mentzer

Topics discussed include (00:00:40) early interest in medicine, travels abroad in Nigeria, studies in Biochemistry at Imperial College London, Masters in Molecular Medicine, medical school at University College London, work at the Royal Free Hospital, London Infectious Diseases Department, research and training opportunities, including PhD at Oxford under supervisor Adrian Hill; (00:07:40) diseases studied whilst in Uganda; (00:09:40) career steps after DPhil, including Academic Clinical Lectureship at Oxford; (00:11:38) first awareness of COVID-19, collaboration with Julian Knight to collect samples from potential COVID-19 patients in hospital and the community; (00:22:31) main research questions addressed by collecting blood samples; (00:27:14) number of individuals enrolled in the research, clinical data captured; (00:32:11) work relating to virus variants; (00:33:39) use of serum in neutralisation assays against variants; (00:35:10) continuing work on COVID-19; (00:37:14) proportion of the population susceptible to the virus, including role of HLA (human leukocyte antigens); (00:40:19) international collaborations developed through the pandemic; (00:45:11) importance of treating patients with serious infections; (00:47:23) personal threat from COVID-19; (00:51:30) changes to working hours and daily routine; (00:53:55) wellbeing support during the pandemic; (00:58:30) early sampling participant involvement; (01:05:27) changes in approach to work as a result of the pandemic and hopes for the future.