ADRIAN Hill is the leading scientist among the team of researchers who are striving to develop a working vaccine for Covid-19 through clinical trials.

The Irish doctor's coronavirus vaccine has been described by WHO as the leading candidate for a working vaccine.

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Here's everything we know about Dr Adrian Hill and his work to find a cure for coronavirus.

The 62-year-old doctor grew up in Ranelagh in Dublin and attended Belvedere College.

He then went on to study medicine at Trinity College and transferred to the University of Oxford in 1978 where he completed his medical degree in 1982.

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During his time as a student in the 1980s, Dr Hill developed a fascination with vaccines and tropical diseases such as malaria.

His interest began when he visited his uncle who was a missionary priest working in a hospital during the civil war in Zimbabwe.

Adrian continued his studies in Oxford until he graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1986.

In 1988, he joined the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine at Oxford and began working on immunogenetics in West Africa.

From there he became the leader of an academic course on Human and Animal Vaccinology at Oxford and is now the Director of the Jenner Institute, an Oxford institute which develops vaccines and carries out clinical trials for diseases.

He also heads a group at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics which studies genetic susceptibility factors for common bacterial diseases.

The Irish vaccinologist has two children with his former wife, Sunetra Guptta who is a well known Indian novelist and professor of theoretical epidemiology at the University of Oxford with an interest in infectious disease agents.

Dr Hill established his growing reputation for his work on an Ebola vaccine in 2014.

His team took the lead in the first clinical trial of an Ebola vaccine which targeted the outbreak of the disease in West Africa.

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The team also developed malaria vaccines that have been tested in clinical trials and is one of the most promising vaccines against the disease.

Adrian is at the forefront of driving the power of medicine to provide healthcare for some of the poorest communities around the world.

In 2014, Dr Hill gave a statement saying: "Witnessing the events in Africa makes it clear that developing new drugs and vaccines against Ebola should now be an urgent priority.

"It is tremendous that so many people have worked hard to make this trial happen in short time, and I am enormously grateful to those volunteers who have come forward to take part and to the funders for supporting this trial so quickly.

"These are initial safety trials of the vaccine and it will be some time before we know whether the vaccine could protect people against Ebola. But we are optimistic that the candidate vaccine may prove useful against the disease in the future."

He has expertise in vaccines for Ebola and malaria, immunology and vaccinology of infectious diseases, human genetics particularly susceptibility to tuberculosis, leprosy, sepsis and other bacterial diseases as well as vaccines against intracellular pathogens.

Dr Hill and his team have now shifted their focused onto Covid-19 and are now the leading candidates for a working vaccine.

The Oxford Covid-19 vaccine trial is being run by the Jenner Institute and Oxford Vaccine Group.

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While Professor Hill is leading the team, other keys members include Prof. Sarah Gilbert, Prof. Andrew Pollard, Prof. Teresa Lambe, Dr Sandy Douglas and Prof. Catherine Green.

The team began developing a vaccine against the coronavirus on January 20, 2020 and have shown great success in recent weeks.

The results of the first phase of the trial were published on Monday in The Lancet, a scientific journal, and indicate no early safety concerns and induces strong immune responses in both parts of the immune system.

The vaccine provoked a T cell response within 14 days of vaccination - this means white blood cells that can attack cells infected with the coronavirus responded within two weeks.

Additionally, there was an antibody response within 28 days - antibodies are able to neutralise the virus so that it cannot infect cells when initially contracted.

During the study participants who received the vaccine had detectable neutralising antibodies, which have been suggested by researchers as important for protection.

Scientists said it produced a reaction in people aged 18 to 55 that lasted at least two months after they were immunised.

Prof Hill said: What were reporting today is the result of a phase 1 trial in over 1,000 people looking at how well this vaccine performs both in terms of its safety, which is good and its immune responses which are pretty exciting.

Hill said that larger trials evaluating the vaccines effectiveness, involving about 10,000 people in the UK as well as participants in South Africa and Brazil are still underway.

Another big trial is hoping to start in the US soon, aiming to enroll about 30,000 people.The next step in studying the vaccine is to confirm that it can effectively protect against Covid-19 infection.

Dr Hill's vaccine will now potentially move forward to more trials where researchers will deliberately attempt to infect test subjects with the virus after they have been given a dose of the vaccine.

Oxford is working with multinational biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca for the further development, large-scale manufacture and potential distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine.

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The project has received 84million 75million) of government funding to help accelerate the vaccines development.

The timeline for a phase three trial depends on whether enough participants have been exposed to the coronavirus in everyday life, which should reveal whether those who have received the vaccine are protected.

This can take months depending on infection levels in the community.

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Coronavirus vaccine Who is Irish scientist Adrian Hill, where did he grow up & how did he lead team to b - The Irish Sun