Rate My Professor Awen Gallimore

Professor Awen Gallimore is a Professor in the Division of Infection and Immunity within the School of Medicine at Cardiff University, serving as Co-Director of the Systems Immunity Research Institute. Specializing in immune tolerance and cancer immunotherapy, she earned her DPhil in 1995 from the University of Oxford in Professor Andrew McMichael's laboratory, where she studied cytotoxic T cell responses to simian and human immunodeficiency viruses. Supported by a Wellcome Trust Travelling Fellowship, she conducted postdoctoral research from 1995 to 1998 in Professor Rolf Zinkernagel's laboratory at the University of Zurich, investigating factors governing anti-viral immunity. Returning to Oxford, she held further Wellcome Trust fellowships, establishing her independent laboratory at the Nuffield Department of Medicine from 1999 to 2002 to apply anti-viral immunity principles to cancer immunology, particularly the role of regulatory T cells in suppressing anti-cancer responses. In 2002, Gallimore joined Cardiff University as Lecturer/Senior Lecturer, advancing to Reader in 2008 and Professor in 2013. She secured an MRC Non-Clinical Senior Fellowship (2006-2011) and a Wellcome Trust University Award (2011-2016), enabling lab expansion funded by Cancer Research UK, Cancer Research Wales, the Wellcome Trust, and Breast Cancer Now.

Gallimore's laboratory focuses on identifying correlates of anti-viral and anti-cancer immunity to inform novel treatments, addressing immunotherapy barriers like regulatory T cell suppression and poor tumor vascular access for immune cells. Her research progresses from animal models to patient testing, including COVID-19 studies on SARS-CoV-2 T cell responses. She holds the position of Cancer Theme Lead for the College of Life Sciences and teaches immunology through lectures, tutorials, and lab projects for medical and pharmacy undergraduates. Gallimore has contributed to international summer schools, such as the European Society of Immunology events and the John Humphreys Summer School in Cuba, and served as External Examiner for BSc Immunology at the University of Glasgow (2014-2018). Key publications include 'Optimising anti-PI3Kδ and anti-LAG-3 immunotherapy dosing regimens in a mouse model of triple negative breast cancer' (Lauder et al., 2026, Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer); 'Stereotactic ablative radiotherapy-driven immunosuppression is associated with poorer progression-free survival in cancer patients' (Oliver et al., 2025, Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy); 'Immuno-oncology' (Gallimore and Tournier, 2023, Essays in Biochemistry); and 'Magnitude of venous or capillary blood-derived SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell response determines COVID-19 immunity' (Scurr et al., 2022, Nature Communications).