Rate My Professor Chris Chiu

Professor Chris Chiu serves as Professor of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Infectious Disease within the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London. An accomplished Infectious Diseases physician and immunologist, he completed his foundational medical training at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford. Chiu pursued advanced research training through a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Training Fellowship, earning a PhD at Imperial College London under Charles Bangham and Margaret Callan, where he explored gene transcription signatures characterizing the early CD8+ T cell response to acute viral infections. Subsequent to his specialist clinical training, he was awarded an MRC Clinician Scientist Fellowship, conducting postdoctoral work in Rafi Ahmed's laboratory at Emory University, focusing on adaptive immune responses elicited by influenza and varicella zoster virus vaccines. Chiu holds the qualification of FRCPath and serves as an Honorary Consultant Physician in Infectious Diseases.

Chiu's research specializations encompass B and T cell immunity to recurrent viral infections, including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza, and herpesviruses, with an emphasis on developing superior vaccines. He leads a research group that utilizes controlled human infection challenge models to investigate systemic and mucosal immune responses against influenza and RSV, elucidating correlates of protection and mechanisms underlying disease severity. He spearheaded the first-in-the-world SARS-CoV-2 human challenge study during the COVID-19 pandemic, producing essential data on infection dynamics, diagnostics, and transmission that shaped national infection control policies. As Director of the Imperial Network for Vaccine Research (INVaR), Chiu promotes collaborative clinical vaccine trials, public engagement, and efforts to address vaccine hesitancy. He chairs international consortia advancing human challenge studies for pandemic preparedness, integrating fundamental research with policy and industry collaboration. Chiu's contributions have earned him election as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2025, in addition to his prior Wellcome Trust and MRC fellowships.