Divya Shah, Research Lead

Divya joined Wellcome in 2015 and has been a Research Lead in the Infectious Disease team since 2021.

As part of the Clinical Research team, she leads Wellcome’s work to support late-stage clinical trials and to strengthen regulatory and clinical trial capabilities, helping to ensure that interventions reach the communities most affected across Africa, South Asia and South-East Asia. She also supports the Phase 3 clinical trial of the promising TB vaccine candidate M72/AS01E, which Wellcome is co-funding with the Gates Foundation. Her focus is on enabling uptake and improving the availability and accessibility of a future TB vaccine.

Previously, Divya worked in Wellcome’s Science division as a member of the Infection and Immunobiology team. She developed strategic initiatives in immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, neuroimmunology and allergy, and managed Wellcome’s investments based in South Africa, including the Africa Health Research Institute and the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Africa. In 2021, she was the Epidemics Research Lead, where she led Wellcome's Covid-19 response to increase genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in low- and middle-income countries.

Before joining Wellcome, Divya conducted research in immunology and immunotherapy in the UK and Canada, investigating the role of signalling pathways in T-cell development.