Thomas Belcher

Biography

Dr Thomas Belcher completed a BSc (Hons) in Microbiology at the University of Bristol in 2013 followed by a PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Bath in 2017. His PhD research was focussed on the metabolism of Bordetella pertussis, the causative agent of whooping cough. Following his PhD, Dr Belcher worked at a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Pasteur Institute of Lille between 2017 and 2021 where he was researching heterologous effects of a live-attenuated B. pertussis vaccine candidate in multiple in vivo models of disease including pneumococcal pneumonia, influenza and asthma. From 2021 to 2024 he worked as a Post-doctoral Scientist at the Jenner Institute, University of Oxford where he was researching the preclinical development of a vaccine against Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the bacterial cause of gonorrhoea.

In 2025, he joined Keele as a Teaching Fellow and took up the role of Lecturer in Microbiology in the School of Life Sciences in 2026.

Research and scholarship

Some vaccines, particularly live-attenuated vaccines, have effects against other infectious diseases and non-infectious diseases. This is often referred to as heterologous effects (https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.001680). My work has shown that a candidate Bordetella pertussis vaccine protected against asthma (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2021.01.025) and pneumococcal pneumonia (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2021.01.025) in mice. Heterologous effects may even extend to virulent bacteria. For example, my work has shown that infection with virulent B. pertussis protected against influenza infection and disease in mice (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.micinf.2024.105404). I am interested in exploring the mechanisms behind heterologous effects using in vivo and in vitro techniques.

I am also interested in novel vaccine development, specifically against bacterial pathogens. My previous also involved working on pre-clinical development of an outer-membrane vaccine against Neisseria gonorrhoeae. I am interested in developing immune assays to study how vaccines work and to investigate immune responses to natural infection.

Teaching

I teach across a range of modules on the Microbiology & Immunology programme. I lead the Case Studies in Microbiology and Immunology, a third-year module that aims to discuss the best of the current trends in the field, including pandemics, emerging infectious diseases, vaccine development and the microbiome. I also teach on the Microbes, Viruses and Parasites and Virology modules and on the microbiology MRes and MSci programmes.