Professor Charles Lacey

MD, FRCP

Emeritus Professor of Medicine

Biography

Charles Lacey is Emeritus Professor of Medicine at Hull York Medical School, University of York. He qualified from Guy’s Hospital Medical School, University of London, and undertook postgraduate training in Bristol, Bath, and Cambridge.

He was appointed Consultant Physician in Genitourinary Medicine at the Leeds General Infirmary in 1982, and there developed his interest in sexually transmitted disease research, being awarded grants to study HPV and candidosis. He also led and advised on HPV and HSV vaccine development in collaboration with industry. In 1996 he was appointed Senior Lecturer in Genitourinary Medicine and Communicable Diseases at Imperial College London, and Honorary Consultant Physician, St Mary’s Hospital, London. He worked in Jonathan Weber’s group, both on HPV clinical and laboratory studies, and also developed a vaginal microbicide research programme, gaining funding from MRC, EC and NIH.

In 2004 he moved to Hull York Medical School, initially as Reader, and then was appointed to the first Chair in Clinical Medicine in York in 2007. He continued to be involved in research programmes in HIV, HPV, and chlamydia. He also collaborated with Prof Paul Kaye in leishmania vaccine development, and received support from MRC, Wellcome Trust, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He retired in 2022 and was awarded the status of Emeritus Professor.

Research

Charles is a member of the Experimental Medicine and Biomedicine research group.

In HPV, with colleagues, we are conducting long-term follow up a multi-arm HPV vaccine study including one-dose regimes in young girls in Tanzania. In York, we are completing memory B cell assays across the trial arms. In York, we will also test a new non-invasive anal neoplasia cytology assay as part of a prospective anal cancer screening study. In Leishmaniasis, we are completing follow up of an RCT in Sudan evaluating our vaccine (ChAd63-KH) for treatment of post-kala azar dermal leishmaniasis. In York, we are conducting a study of a controlled human infection model of Leishmania major infection.

Collaborations
  • London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

  • University College London

  • National Institute of Medical Research, Tanzania

  • Institute for Endemic Diseases, University of Khartoum, Sudan

External roles

I am a member of the BASHH HPV Special Interest Group.