I am an Associate Professor in Reproductive Immunology based in the Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction at Imperial College London.

I did my PhD at the University of Cambridge on NK cells in human pregnancy. I then went on to a post-doctoral project investigating the transcriptional control of NK cell development in mice, which I undertook at Imperial. In 2015, I was awarded a Sir Henry Dale Fellowship, which I used to start my own laboratory at the Royal Free Hospital Campus of UCL. Working closely with the liver transplant team, my group showed that long-lived resident NK cells are present in the human liver and defined some of that pathways by which they develop. We also showed that NK cells recruited to the liver become less functional in obesity-associated liver disease, and that this is associated with a decreased ability to clear cancer cells.

In 2019, I returned to Imperial. There, I was appointed as a Lecturer in Reproductive Immunology in 2021, then Senior Lecturer in 2022 and Associate Professor in 2025. My research group is interested in how innate immune cells in the human uterus are involved in the physiological processes of pregnancy, particularly placental implantation and parturition. During the pandemic, I was involved in collating and communicating information on the effect of SARS-CoV2 infection and COVID vaccination on fertility, pregnancy and breastfeeding, and in research on how COVID vaccination affects the menstrual cycle. 

Work in my laboratory is currently funded by Borne, Action Medical Research, the Medical Resarch Council  and the Genesis Research Trust. Previous work was funded by the Wellcome Trust, the Royal Society and Community Jameel. Students or post-docs interested in my group's work should email me at v.male@imperial.ac.uk.

I am co-director of the MSc course in Reproductive and Developmental Biology and I lecture on Immunology of Pregnancy, Immunology of Transplantation, Viral Immunity and Science Communication. I also act as a mentor to two postdoctoral scientists. Outside the University, I do outreach in local primary schools, have previously acted as a mentor to three Black British A level science students through the Windsor Fellowship and help run vaccinesinpregnancy.org providing up-to-date evidence on vaccination in pregnancy for expectant parents and the healthcare professionals that look after them.