Professor Stephen Gordon

Stephen Gordon and his group focus on the prevention and treatment of lung infection in adults. We compare lung defence against infection in Africa and the UK using lung samples, controlled human infection studies, and treatment trials.  We study healthy volunteers, people with exposure to household air pollution, and people living with HIV. 

Group Members

Dr Klara Doherty, WT Clinical PhD student

Dr Stephen Spencer, WT Clinical PhD student

Dr Anthony Chirwa, Clinical Researcher

Dr Innocent Sulani, Clinical Researcher

Dr Gareth Lipunga, Clinical Researcher

Dr Tarsizio Chikaonda, Deputy Group Head and Laboratory Lead

Neema Toto, MARVELS Programme Coordinator

Sr Edna Nsomba, Lead Research Nurse

Research interests

Stephen is clinically active as a chest physician and his research uses human challenge studies to understand defence against infection.  He works in Africa and the UK, seeking synergistic opportunities to make translational impact. 

Career

Stephen has conducted clinical and translational research in the UK and Malawi since 1993; his research in pulmonary disease in Malawi began in 1996. His initial research focus was on HIV-associated lung macrophage functional defects, specifically against pneumonia. He subsequently expanded his interest to include the effect of household air pollution on pulmonary mucosal defence against infection including a landmark cook stove intervention trial published in Lancet. His current research focuses on defence against respiratory infection using a pneumococcal human challenge model.  This model was developed in Liverpool, transferred to Malawi and is now being used to explain the relative lack of herd immunity following pneumococcal conjugate vaccine implementation in Malawi.  New studies focus on more resistant serotypes, populations at risk including people living with HIV, and new immunomodulatory agents as well as new vaccines.  Future projects include mycobacterial and salmonella human challenge studies to bring forward vaccine discovery in Malawi.  These projects are coordinated as the Malawi Accelerated Research in Vaccines by Experimental and Laboratory Systems (MARVELS) programme which he leads.

Stephen sets a high priority on capacity development, equitable training, and translation.  As Director of the Malawi Liverpool Wellcome programme (2015-2022), Stephen led with a vision of “research to benefit health and train the next generation of researchers”.  He developed locally led Research Groups and a training programme that nurtured local and international trainees from postgraduate to Professor level. Prior to that, he was a founder member of the Pan African Thoracic Society and developed the Pan African Thoracic Society research training programme (PATS MECOR), which has resulted in a network of locally led respiratory research across Africa. During the COVID times in Malawi, he and others brought an oxygen plant to Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, saving many lives at the time and in the future. Recently Stephen led the CREATOR (Clinical Research Excellence and Training Open Resource) programme, a £10m project resulting in a new building opened in May 2025 aiming to change the paradigm of clinical specialist and research training in Africa by combining these in-country in Malawi. 

Starting in Edinburgh in 2025, Stephen hopes to build collaborative links in translational experimental medicine especially the use of human challenge studies to accelerate vaccine development.  He will continue to look for opportunities to address the global health challenges posed by poverty, migration and climate change.

Key projects

Clinical Research Excellence and Training Open Resource (CREATOR), Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Programme, Malawi.

Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Programme - The Creator Building

Recent Publications

1. Hill H, Mitsi E, Nikolaou E, Blizard A, Pojar S, Howard A, Hyder-Wright A, Devin J, Reine J, Robinson R, Solorzano C, Jochems SP, Kenny-Nyazika T, Ramos-Sevillano E, Weight CM, Myerscough C, McLenaghan D, Morton B, Gibbons E, Farrar M, Randles V, Burhan H, Chen T, Shandling AD, Campo JJ, Heyderman RS, Gordon SB, Brown JS, Collins AM, Ferreira DM. A Randomised Controlled Trial of Nasal Immunisation with Live Virulence Attenuated Streptococcus pneumoniae Strains Using Human Infection Challenge. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2023.

2. Tembo G, Mayuni M, Kamng'ona R, Chimgoneko L, Chiwala G, Sichone S, Galafa B, Thole F, Mkandawire C, Chirwa AE, Nsomba E, Nkhoma V, Ngoliwa C, Toto N, Makhaza L, Muyaya A, Kudowa E, Henrion MYR, Dula D, Morton B, Chikaonda T, Gordon SB, Jambo KC. Poor association between 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine-induced serum and mucosal antibody responses with experimental Streptococcus pneumoniae serotype 6B colonisation. Vaccine 2024; 42: 2975-2982.

3. Dula D, Morton B, Chikaonda T, Chirwa AE, Nsomba E, Nkhoma V, Ngoliwa C, Sichone S, Galafa B, Tembo G, Chaponda M, Toto N, Kamng’ona R, Makhaza L, Muyaya A, Thole F, Kudowa E, Howard A, Kenny-Nyazika T, Ndaferankhande J, Mkandawire C, Chiwala G, Chimgoneko L, Banda NP, Rylance J, Ferreira DM, Jambo K, Henrion M, Gordon SB. Effect of 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine on experimental carriage of Streptococcus pneumoniae serotype 6B in Blantyre, Malawi: a randomised  controlled trial and controlled human infection study. Lancet Microbe 2023; 4: 9.

4. Gordon SB, Sichone S, Chirwa AE, Phoebe Hazenberg, Zacharia Kafuko, Daniela M. Ferreira, Joanne Flynn, Sarah Fortune, Shobana Balasingam, Giancarlo A. Biagini, Helen McShane, Henry Mwandumba, Kondwani Jambo, Keertan Dedha, Nimisha Raj Sharma, Brian D. Robertson, Naomi Walker, Ben Morton, TB Controlled Human Infection Model Development Group. Practical considerations for a TB controlled human infection model (TB-CHIM); the case for TB-CHIM in Africa, a systematic review of the literature and report of 2 workshop discussions in UK and Malawi. Wellcome Open Res 2023, 8:71 2023.

5. Anscombe C, Lissauer S, Thole H, Rylance J, Dula D, Menyere M, Kutambe B, van der Veer C, Phiri T, Banda NP, Mndolo KS, Mponda K, Phiri C, Mallewa J, Nyirenda M, Katha G, Mwandumba H, Gordon SB, Jambo KC, Cornick J, Feasey N, Barnes KG, Morton B, Ashton PM, Blantyre C-C. A comparison of four epidemic waves of COVID-19 in Malawi; an observational cohort study. BMC Infect Dis 2023; 23: 79.

6. Spencer SA, Adipa FE, Baker T, Crawford AM, Dark P, Dula D, Gordon SB, Hamilton DO, Huluka DK, Khalid K, Lakoh S, Limbani F, Rylance J, Sawe HR, Simiyu I, Waweru-Siika W, Worrall E, Morton B. A health systems approach to critical care delivery in low-resource settings: a narrative review. Intensive Care Med 2023; 49: 772-784.

7. Robinson RE, Myerscough C, He N, Hill H, Shepherd WA, Gonzalez-Dias P, Liatsikos K, Latham S, Fyles F, Doherty K, Hazenberg P, Shiham F, McLenghan D, Adler H, Randles V, Zaidi S, Hyder-Wright A, Mitsi E, Burhan H, Morton B, Rylance J, Lesosky M, Gordon SB, Collins AM, Ferreira DM. Comprehensive review of safety in Experimental Human Pneumococcal Challenge. PLoS One 2023; 18: e0284399.

8. Herbst A, Goel S, Beane A, Brotherton BJ, Dula D, Ely EW, Gordon SB, Haniffa R, Hedt-Gauthier B, Limbani F, Lipnick MS, Lyon S, Njoki C, Oduor P, Otieno G, Pisani L, Rylance J, Shrime MG, Uwamahoro DL, Vanderburg S, Waweru-Siika W, Twagirumugabe T, Riviello E. Oxygen saturation targets for adults with acute hypoxemia in low and lower-middle income countries: a scoping review with analysis of contextual factors. Front Med (Lausanne) 2023; 10: 1148334.

9. de Baat T, Lester R, Ghambi L, Twabi HH, Nielsen M, Gordon SB, van Weissenbruch MM, Feasey NA, Dube Q, Kawaza K, Iroh Tam PY. Clinical predictors of bacteraemia in neonates with suspected early-onset sepsis in Malawi: a prospective cohort study. Arch Dis Child 2023; 108: 350-356.

10. Ardrey J, Jehan K, Desmond N, Kumbuyo C, Nyirenda D, Gordon SB, Mortimer K, Tolhurst R. 'Why would they spend all this money and give us these items for free?': Exploring precarity and power in a cleaner cookstove intervention in rural Malawi. PLOS Glob Public Health 2023; 3: e0001537.

Alumni

Prof Daniela Ferreira, University of Oxford

Prof Kondwani Jambo, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

Prof Janelisa Musaya, Kamuzu University of Health Sciences

Prof Kevin Mortimer, Aintree University Hospital and University of KwaZulu Natal

Dr Jamie Rylance, World Health Organization

Collaborators

Prof Debby Bogaerts, Centre for Inflammation Research        

Prof David Dockrell, Centre for Inflammation Research

Prof Daniela Ferreira, University of Oxford       

Prof Kondwani Jambo, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

Prof Simon Jochems, University Medical Centre, Leiden

Funders

Efficacy trial of PnuBioVax vaccine against serotype3, MRC DPFS, £3.2m (2024-27)

Core Award for the Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust Programme, £9,884,066 (2023-25)