[5] For a postgraduate study, she conducted medical research at the Common Cold Unit in Salisbury, supervised by David Tyrrell and Fred Brown, for which she was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from the University of Reading in 1988: her doctoral thesis was titled "The humoral immune response to rhinovirus infection".

One was with Professor Jeff Almond at the University of Reading, and the other was at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York with Peter Palese.

[12][13] In addition, she has written articles describing the importance of understanding how some viruses can cross species barriers to prevent another epidemic.

She is particularly keen on understanding the resistance mechanisms of antiviral compounds, and characterisation of novel cell substrates and attenuated virus backbones for influenza vaccines.

[4] In January 2019, Wendy Barclay led an IdeasLab[17] session at the World Economic Forum[18] in Davos, Switzerland that focused on 'Developing a Vaccine Revolution',[19] in which she spoke about the race to stop the next flu pandemic at source by preventing it from crossing from wild birds into chickens.

One of Barclay's most notable work involved looking at cells infected with the influenza A virus and identifying physiological RIG-I agonists.

[22] Barclay was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to virology.