Nuffield Council on Bioethics appoints new members

Muhammed Afolabi

Muhammed Afolabi is a Clinical Assistant Professor and UKRI Fellow at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. He has more than 12 years of experience in the clinical evaluation of vaccines for Ebola, HIV and malaria in adult and paediatric populations across several African countries. He led the paediatric trials for a prophylactic Ebola vaccine regimen in Sierra Leone, findings of which contributed to the approval of the novel two-dose Ebola vaccine regimen (ZABDENO/MVABEA) by the European Medicines Agency. He also has expertise in bioethics shaping conduct of clinical trials and deployment of multimedia technology for obtaining informed consent among vulnerable populations. Muhammed serves on several vaccine and immunisation committees including the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) Working Group on COVID-19 vaccines.

Ruchi Baxi

Ruchi Baxi is a Consultant in Public Health Medicine. She works for Public Health England as a Screening and Immunisation Lead for the Thames Valley region. Ruchi has a longstanding interest in bioethics. Prior to her current role, she was based at the Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, where she completed a DPhil at the Ethox Centre focused on ethical issues sharing infectious disease related data and samples internationally. During this time she also served as the Deputy Director of Clinical (Public Health) Teaching.