Wendy Barclay

Wendy Sue Fox (née Barclay) is a British virologist. She is currently head of Department of Infectious Disease and chair in Influenza Virology at Imperial College London. She leads a team of scientists studying the influenza virus and its physiology and morphology to discover novel vaccines. In particular, they are trying to understand more about influenza virus mutations, and how they can allow scientists to create new vaccines against possible flu pandemics. For a postgraduate study, she conducted medical research at the Common Cold Unit in Salisbury, supervised by David Tyrrell and Fred Brown, for which she was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from the University of Reading in 1988: her doctoral thesis was titled "The humoral immune response to rhinovirus infection". At Reading, she was involved in human challenge studies with rhinovirus, to study the virus and its interaction with the human body.

Research and career After her PhD, Barclay held two postdoctoral research positions. One was with Professor Jeff Almond at the University of Reading, and the other was at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York with Peter Palese. All three belong to the family Orthomyxoviridae. Viruses that belong to this family are single stranded (-) RNA viruses that replicate within the nucleus of the host's cells. She has also described some of the mechanisms of flu resistance to drugs.

In addition, she has written articles describing the importance of understanding how some viruses can cross species barriers to prevent another epidemic. In February 2015, CNN posted an article on its webpage that included statements made by Barclay. In it she told of her concerns about another possible flu pandemic, and how, if it ever did happen, it would spread fast and hard. She is trying to learn more about host range restrictions for the influenza virus, and its transmission between humans and animals as well as transmission between animal species. session at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland that focused on 'Developing a Vaccine Revolution', in which she spoke about the race to stop the next flu pandemic at source by preventing it from crossing from wild birds into chickens. Work with the Roslin Institute focused on blocking this transmission using novel molecular techniques.

Notable work, honours and awards One of Barclay's most notable work involved looking at cells infected with the influenza A virus and identifying physiological RIG-I agonists. This article was published in Cell in 2010, and has been cited over 270 times. Research gathered for the article explained how one of the human cell's defences against RNA viruses comes in the form of RIG-Is. She was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2019 and was awarded the 2023 Microbiology Society Prize Medal by the Microbiology Society for her work.

Barclay was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to virology.

Memberships and editorial boards Committee member, Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (Influenza Sub-group), Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization, Department of Health (DoH), 2008 Committee member, Wellcome Trust basic Science Interview Committee

Barclay has served on several editorial boards including:

PLOS Pathogens, guest editor (Online) 2018 : Why the Flu of 1918 was so deadly Human Swarm (TV movie documentary), 2013; appeared as herself Horizon (UK TV series), 2013; appeared as herself