Christopher Myerscough is a Laboratory Manager at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) working with the Liverpool Vaccine Group and the Research Governance Office. His career started as an undergraduate at the University of Liverpool studying Life Sciences Applicable to Medicine (with a project on multiple lysogeny in E. coli), moving on to a research master’s degree in Microbiology (with a project on staphylococci survival response to free fatty acids), then to a PhD in Molecular Biology where he researched cystatin C in age-related macular degeneration. Following this Christopher worked for Liverpool Cancer Trials Unit as a Clinical Trials Technician at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital and then as Quality Assurance Officer for the Experimental Cancer Medical Centre.

At LSTM he is involved in a variety of activities relating to clinical trials research due to his wide-ranging experience in practical laboratory research and clinical trials. Christopher has significant experience in good clinical practice and quality systems in relation to laboratories, knowledge of human tissue and clinical trials regulations, training in audit, experience with health and safety, and he has some familiarity with SQL databases.

Christopher is the departmental representative for Clinical Sciences to the Health and Safety Oversight Committee, represents Liverpool Vaccine Group on the Biological Safety Committee, attends the Human Tissue Compliance Committee both as part of my work with Research Governance and as the Person Designated for Liverpool Vaccine Group, and attends Research Integrity and Governance Committee as part of his work with Research Governance.

Since joining LSTM Christopher has primarily worked in clinical studies and trials relating to infectious diseases at Containment Levels 2 and 3, especially challenge studies, working to operationalise studies/trials through ensuring smooth and compliant setup, conduct, and close-down.

At LSTM he has worked on a wide variety of clinical studies and trials using streptococcus pneumoniae, bacillus calmette-guérin, and salmonella parayphi. He has also been involved in a variety of SARS-CoV-2 trials and studies, including vaccine trials during the pandemic (Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and the COMCOV trials), studies relating to patients and healthcare workers in early phases of the pandemic (SAFER - SARS-CoV-2 Acquisition in Frontline Health Care Workers – Evaluation to Inform Response and FASTER - Facilitating A SARS-CoV-2 TEst for Rapid triage), and the AGILE study in combination with the University of Liverpool that delivered an experimental viral culture endpoint.

Since 2024 he has worked as a Human Tissue Specialist for LSTM as part of Research Governance, working on improving processes, documentation, and records and taking a leading role in inspections and response to audits.