University of Birmingham
College of Medical and Dental Sciences
Fellows Symposium 2015
Leonard Deacon Lecture Theatre, Medical School
Thursday 9 July 2015
08.30 Coffee
08.45 Welcome - Professor Paul Moss
Session 1
Chair: Professor Jane McKeating
09.00 Introduction by Chair
09.05 Dr Hareth Al-Janabi, Birmingham Fellow, Health Economics
09.25 Dr Mathew Coleman, MRC New Investigator, Cancer
09.45 Dr Michele Buckner, AXA Fellow, Bacteriology – Antimicrobial Resistance
10.05 Dr Yemisi Takwoingi, NIHR Fellow, Biostatistics - Test Evaluation
10.25 Dr Anne Fletcher, Birmingham Fellow, Immunology
10.45 Refreshment break
Session 2
Chair: Professor Tracy Roberts
11.10 Introduction by Chair
11.15 Dr Raoul Reulen, NIHR Fellow, Epidemiology - Cancer Survivorship
11.35 Dr Rowan Hardy, ARUK Fellow, Endocrinology and Inflammation
11.55 Dr Sovan Sarkar, Birmingham Fellow, Autophagy and Stem Cells
12.15 Dr David Withers, Wellcome Research Career Development Fellow, Immunology
12.45 Lunch and opportunity for networking
Session 3
Chair: Professor David Adams
14.00 Introduction by Chair
14.05 Dr Joyce Yeung, NIHR Clinician Scientist in Anaesthesia
14.25 Dr Oliver Goodyear, BBSRC Enterprise Fellow, immunology/tumour immunology
14.45 Dr Zania Stamataki, Royal Society DH, Viral Immunology and Liver
15.05 Dr Camela de Santo, CRUK New Investigator, Cancer
15.25 Professor Yotis Senis, BHF Senior Fellow, Cardiovascular Sciences
15.45 Closing summary – Professor Jane McKeating
16.05 Drinks reception
Fellows Presenting
Session 1
09.05
Dr Hareth Al-Janabi, Birmingham Fellow, Health Economics, School of Health and
Population Sciences
Contact details: Email h.aljanabi@bham.ac.uk, Telephone 0121 415 8483
Measuring the wider costs and benefits of treatments to patients’ family carers
09.25
Hareth first worked as an economist at the Department of Health and the Treasury. In
2005, he started a PhD at the University of Bristol, supervised by Professor Jo Coast
(now at Birmingham) and caught the research bug! He completed the PhD and
moved to the University of Birmingham in 2008. Over the last 7 years he has been
involved in research to develop techniques to measure the wider benefits of
healthcare interventions for economic evaluation. He was awarded a personal
fellowship by the MRC (2011) and a Birmingham Fellowship (2012) to develop his
research programme on informal care. He is currently working on studies in a number
of areas including childhood illness, dementia, end of life care, and lung disease.
Dr Mathew Coleman, MRC New Investigator, School of Cancer Sciences
Contact details: Email m.coleman@bham.ac.uk, Telephone 0121 414 4484
OH, the places you'll go! Protein hydroxylation and its role in physiology and
disease
09.45
Mat’s research focuses on exploring the role of hydroxylation in fundamental cellular
processes and disease, including protein synthesis and cancer.
In 2009 a Career Development Fellowship funded by the OAK foundation allowed
Mat to establish his group working on cancer-associated protein hydroxylases.
Together with Professor Christopher Schofield (Chemistry department, Oxford
University) he demonstrated for the first time that the ribosome is a novel target of
protein hydroxylases. Subsequent work focussed on identifying other hydroxylases
that regulate protein synthesis, and the roles these and related enzymes play in
cancer. This work resulted in an MRC New Investigator Award and a GSK/BBSRC
industrial CASE PhD scholarship. Mat’s work is continuing to explore the role of
protein hydroxylation in tumour cell biology.
Dr Michelle Buckner, AXA Research Fund Fellowship, Antibiotic Resistance, Institute
of Microbiology and Infection and School of Immunity and Infection
Contact details: Email: mmcbuckner@gmail.com, Telephone 0121 415 8693
Twitter: @mmcbuckner
Mitigating the risks of plasmid mediated antibiotic resistance
Michelle is a microbiologist whose research interest’s lie in how bacteria become
resistant to antimicrobials, and what can be done to make them sensitive to existing
antimicrobials. Michelle completed her PhD in Prof. Finlay’s laboratory at the
University of British Columbia. She studied the interaction of the bacterial pathogen
Salmonella Typhimurium with the host. She explored the role of the SPI2 encoded
type three secretion system in virulence in mouse models of typhoid fever,
macrophages, and epithelial cells and the interaction between bacterial infection and
host metabolism, specifically the role of prostaglandin hormones on bacterial
pathogenesis. Michelle came to Birmingham in 2013 as a researcher with Laura
Piddock. Initially she worked on bacterial efflux pumps and their role in virulence. In
Jan 2015 she started her AXA Fellowship studying antibiotic resistance plasmids.
10.05
Dr Yemisi Takwoingi, NIHR Doctoral Fellowship Public Health, Epidemiology and
Biostatistics, School Health and Population Sciences
Contact details: Email y.takwoingi@bham.ac.uk, Telephone 0121 414 7833
How reliable is the evidence for selecting diagnostic tests for patient care?
10.25
Yemisi’s main interest is in methodology for systematic reviews of diagnostic test
accuracy studies, and the design and conduct of primary studies of medical tests.
Following a career break from veterinary medicine that led to an MSc in Information
Technology, Yemisi joined the University of Birmingham in 2001 as an analyst
programmer in the Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit. She later worked in the Unit as a
statistical programmer and statistician after completing a Diploma in Statistics (Open
University, 2005) and an MSc in Medical Statistics (University of Leicester, 2007). In
2008, she moved to the Test Evaluation Research Group based in Heath and
Population Sciences. In 2011 she was awarded an NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship
to undertake a PhD in meta-analytic methods for summarising and comparing
diagnostic test accuracy. In addition to her methodology research, Yemisi is statistical
lead/study statistician on collaborations undertaking primary and secondary research
of tests in a variety of healthcare topics funded by the NIHR and other funders. She is
also interested in developing user-friendly programs to make statistical methods used
in test evaluation accessible to non-statisticians.
Dr Anne Fletcher, Birmingham Fellow Immunology, School of Immunity and
Infection
Contact details: Email A.Fletcher@bham.ac.uk
Lymph node stromal cells: nurturing the adaptive immune response
After completing her PhD in Immunology at Monash, Anne spent a few years at
Harvard Medical School / Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Boston, USA before taking up
her position last year as a Birmingham Fellow in Immunology.
Anne’s research interests are focussed on examining how structural cells of the
lymph node foster the initiation and healthy regulation of immune responses. She
uses a range of cutting-edge cellular and molecular techniques to examine
immunological interactions between stromal cells and leukocytes, focussing on
interactions between lymph node fibroblastic reticular cells (FRCs) and T cells, in both
healthy and disease states.
Session 2
11.15
Dr Raoul Reulen Senior Lecturer & NIHR Fellow, Public Health, Epidemiology and
Biostatistics, Health and Population Sciences
Contact details: Email r.c.reulen@bham.ac.uk, Telephone 0121 414 4946
Adverse health outcomes among five year survivors of a cancer diagnosed under
age 40 years
11.35
Raoul completed an MSc in Epidemiology and one in Health Sciences from Maastricht
University, undertaking his MSc dissertation at the University of Leuven, Belgium as
an Erasmus Exchange student. In 2006 he was awarded a Cancer Research UK
Graduate Training Fellowship to support his PhD studies in the Centre for Childhood
Cancer Survivor Studies Group at Birmingham looking at the long term effects of
treatment of a cohort of 35,000 cancer survivors in Britain. He was awarded an NIHR
Postdoctoral Fellowship and is currently involved in setting up the Teenage and
Young Adult Cancer Survivor Study (TYA-CSS), a large-scale cohort study of 235,000
individuals in Britain diagnosed between the ages of 15 to 39 years. Raoul is also
involved in several EU PF7 survivorship studies and works closely with groups in the
US looking at survivorship.
Dr Rowan Hardy, ARUK Career Development Fellow, School of Experimental
Medicine & School of Immunity and Infection
Contact details: Email r.hardy@bham.ac.uk
The Endocrinology of Inflammatory disease
11.55
Rowan completed his BMedSci degree at the University of Birmingham, specialising in
Cellular and Molecular Biology, before undertaking a PhD in Medical Sciences
exploring the role of steroid metabolism in inflammatory disease. He has since held a
Wellcome Trust VIP award and ARUK Travelling Fellowship where he focused on
steroid metabolism in murine models of inflammatory disease at the University of
Sydney. He is now an ARUK Career Development Fellow where his primary focus is
exploring the roles of pre-receptor glucocorticoid metabolism in mediating
detrimental features of chronic inflammatory disease such as muscle wasting,
cartilage erosion and bone loss.
Dr Sovan Sarkar, Birmingham Fellow, School of Immunity and Infection
Contact details: Email s.sarkar@bham.ac.uk, Telephone 0121 414 6669
Regulation and therapeutic application of autophagy in human diseases.
Sovan is a Birmingham Fellow, and holds the distinction of Former Fellow at Hughes
Hall, University of Cambridge. Sovan graduated from University of Cambridge with
Gates Cambridge Scholarship followed by Post-Doctoral positions at University of
Cambridge and Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in MIT. He works on the
regulation and therapeutic application of autophagy in human physiology and disease
using human embryonic stem cells and disease-specific induced pluripotent stem
cells. One of his major research contributions is the identification of mTORindependent signalling pathways and small molecules modulating autophagy that
have tremendous biomedical relevance as therapeutic candidates for diverse
diseases. His work has led to around 50 publications with over 8000 citations, 4
patents, and several awards including Hughes Hall Research Fellowship and
Biochemical Society Early Career Research Award in Cell Biology.
12.15
Dr David Withers, Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Fellowship, School
of Immunity and Infection
Contact: d.withers@bham.ac.uk, Telephone 0121 414 3634
From desk to benchside: what did I achieve in my fellowship?’
Following completion of his PhD at the University of Bristol, David moved to the
National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, US) in 2004 to join the
Autoimmunity Branch of NIAMS with Dr Peter Lipsky. In 2006 he returned to the UK
to join the group of Professor Peter Lane to continue his postdoctoral studies. In April
2011 he started his own research group at the University of Birmingham following
the award of a Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Fellowship. His work
focuses on understanding how Innate Lymphoid Cells control CD4 T cell responses.
Session 3
14.05
Dr Joyce Yeung, Clinician Scientist in Anaesthesia and NIHR Post Doctoral Fellow,
School of Clinical and Experimental Medicine
Contact details: Email j.yeung@bham.ac.uk, Telephone 0121 371 3229
General anaesthesia versus regional anaesthesia in reducing post-operative
delirium in patients with hip fractures
14.25
Joyce completed her anaesthetic training at Warwickshire School of Anaesthesia. Her
PhD into strategies to improve quality of cardiopulmonary resuscitation was awarded
the first PhD fellowship from Resuscitation Council UK. Her research findings have
been presented both nationally and internationally and many have been
incorporated into international resuscitation guidelines. She was awarded NIHR
Clinical Lectureship in Anaesthesia in 2012 and joined University of Birmingham as
part of the Perioperative, Anaesthesia, Critical Care and Trauma Trials (PACCT) group.
In 2013, she completed her clinical training and started her current post as an
honorary consultant in anaesthesia and critical care at Heart of England NHS
Foundation Trust. Joyce has research interests in the field of anaesthesia, critical care
and resuscitation. Her current research focuses on the impact of anaesthesia on
cognitive function and development of chronic pain post surgery.
Dr Oliver Goodyear, BBSRC Enterprise Fellow, School of Immunity and Infection
Contact details: Email o.c.goodyear@gmail.com, Telephone 07710 537 388
Commercialisation of a novel label-free cell separation platform technology
14.45
Oli completed his PhD at the School of Cancer Sciences. He then completed two postdoctoral positions working with Professor Paul Moss and Professor Charlie Craddock
also within the School of Cancer Studies. In 2011 Oliver took up another postdoctorate position working with Dr Mark Cobbold in the School of Immunity and
Infection on a BBSRC BRIC funded project focused on “Developing generic scalable
selection methods for human therapeutic cells”. Following the success of this project
Oli was awarded an RSE/BBSRC Enterprise Fellowship to commercialise a novel labelfree cell separation technology. His research interests are immunology/tumour
immunology, cell therapy and cell separation
Dr Zania Stamataki, Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship, School of Immunity
and Infection
Contact details: Email z.stamataki@bham.ac.uk
Lymphocytes in the liver microenvironment: matters of life and death.
Zania completed her PhD in Immunology at Imperial College London. She moved to
the Babraham Institute in Cambridge to work with Dr Martin Turner, and then she
took up a postdoc at the University of Birmingham with professor Jane McKeating.
Zania took up a position as NIHR research fellow with professor David Adams in 2011,
to study liver immunology in a translational setting within the NIHR Biomedical
Research Unit for Liver Disease. A recurrent theme in Zania's career has been the
study of lymphocyte interactions with stromal cells, particularly in the context of
chronic inflammation caused by viral infection. During her time at the Centre for Liver
Research, Zania was awarded a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship and holds a
proleptic academic position. Her team explores the role of lymphocytes in liver
inflammation, with a special focus in their interactions with the liver
microenvironment. Zania is also an Athena Swan representative.
15.05
15.25
Dr Camela de Santo CRUK New Investigator Fellow, School of Cancer Sciences,
Contact details: Email c.desanto@bham.ac.uk
Following a degree in Biology at the University of Padua, Carmela joined Professor
Vincenzo Bronte’s group in 2002 to study for a PhD. After successfully completing her
PhD, she carried out post-doctoral studies in Professor Vincenzo Cerundolo’s
laboratory in the Weatherall Institute for Molecular Medicine in Oxford, in 2006.
Carmela’s current research focusses firstly on understanding the molecular
mechanisms underpinning the MDSC-mediated immune suppression in the tumour
microenvironment and to understand the mechanisms of cancer to promote a
immunosuppressive microenvironment and create a immopriviledge niche. These
studies encompass a number of tumours, including Acute Myeloid Leukaemia, but
also solid tumours including neuroblastoma, and lung cancer (as mesothelioma). A
second focus is on investigating potential routes to therapeutically target MDSC
function in the clinic, with the aim of developing novel immunotherapy strategies
that stimulate anti-tumour immunity in cancer patients by depressing MDSCmediated immunosuppression. Potential routes that Carmela is investigating include
pharmacological inhibition of MDSC function, and use of invariant Natural Killer T
cells to suppress MDSC effector functions.
Professor Yotis Senis, PhD, British Heart Foundation Senior Basic Science Research
Fellow, School of Clinical and Experimental Medicine
Contact details: Email y.senis@bham.ac.uk, Telephone 0121 414 8308
You ain’t got time to bleed – tyrosine phosphatases in haemostasis and thrombosis”
Yotis was awarded a BScH in Life Sciences, an MSc and PhD in Pathology from
Queen’s University, Canada. His MSc was with Alan Giles in one of the leading
haemostasis and thrombosis groups, and PhD was with Peter Greer on tyrosine
phosphorylation and haematopoiesis. His postdoctoral training was with Steve
Watson at the University of Oxford, characterizing novel receptors and signalling
pathways regulating platelet activation and thrombosis. In 2009 he was awarded a
British Heart Foundation Intermediate Basic Science Research Fellowship and a Senior
Fellowship in 2013. In his research he takes a multidisciplinary approach to elucidate
how protein tyrosine phosphatases regulate platelet production and function, with
the overall objective of identifying novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of
thrombosis and bleeding disorders.
Other Independent Postdoctoral Fellows in the College
Prof Owen Addison, Clinical Professor and Honorary Consultant in Restorative Dentistry, NIHR
Clinician Scientist
Contact details: Email o.addison@bham.ac.uk, Telephone 0121 466 5506
Owen Addison qualified as a dentist from the University of Birmingham in 2001. Following a year
in general practice he commenced work in hospital posts and gained his membership of the
faculty of dental surgeons in 2003. He then combined a series of part time clinical positions
whilst studying for his PhD which was awarded in 2007. At this time he took up a Lectureship at
the School of Dentistry. In 2012 he completed specialist training in Restorative Dentistry and
was awarded an honorary Consultant contract to provide specialist clinical care. He has worked
on the development biomedical materials since starting his PhD studies developing expertise in
characterising the long-term performance (both physical and biological) of implanted
biomaterials and has used the acquired knowledge to inform subsequent programmes of
materials and device development. His activities to date have been highly collaborative with
regular formal interactions on joint programmes with material scientists, engineers, physicists,
metallurgists, computational scientists, immunologists, cell and molecular biologists,
epidemiologists and experts with thorough understanding of product development and
regulatory issues. Much of his work has direct application into the development of healthcare
technologies. He was awarded a five year National Institute for Health Research Clinician
Scientist fellowship in 2011, which was aimed at developing his capabilities to lead research at
the clinical, life and physical sciences interface.
Dr Ben Babourina-Brooks, Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship, School of Cancer
Sciences.
Contact details: Email B.Brooks@bham.ac.uk
After completing his PhD at the University of Queensland Ben received a Marie Curie Incoming
Fellowship to work in the laboratories of Professor Andrew Peet (2013). Ben’s research focuses
on novel methods to improve the diagnosis and prognosis of childhood brain tumours. His
current project involves investigating the tumour micro-environment, through MRS temperature
measures, DWI, T2 imaging and metabolite T2 values. The goal is to develop the methods and
assess their clinical application
Dr Dalan Bailey, Birmingham Fellow, School of Immunity and Infection
Contact details: Email d.bailey@bham.ac.uk, Telephone 0121 414 6854
Dalan Bailey was appointed to a University of Birmingham Research Fellowship in 2013. He is
working on the biology of RNA viruses, particularly Paramyxovirus entry and exit. He has over 10
years’ experience working on the molecular determinants of pathogenesis, with particular focus
on morbilliviruses and noroviruses. Dalan is applying novel omics technologies (proteomics,
transcriptomics, high-throughput screens etc.) to these research areas to investigate the
mechanisms underpinning viral replication.
Dalan currently supervises two full-time PhD students who work on morbillivirus endocytosis
and host-range. His research has been published in the Journal of Virology, PLOS Pathogens,
Nucleic Acids Research and the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Dr David Bartlett , Marie Curie Research Fellow, Ageing, School of Immunity and Infection
Contact details: Email d.b.bartlett@bham.ac.uk
Following the completion of his PhD (2014) from the University of Birmingham under Prof. Janet
Lord, David was awarded a Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship. David is currently
based in Prof. William Kraus’s lab at the Duke Molecular Physiology Institute, Duke University,
USA. David’s research focuses on the immune and inflammatory responses of exercise training
in elderly people. His current work is assessing the effects of 10-weeks of high intensity interval
training on immune function and immune cell metabolism in patients with rheumatoid arthritis
and pre-diabetes.
Dr Vassiliy Bavro Birmingham Fellow, School of Immunity and Infection
Contact details: Email v.bavro@bham.ac.uk, Telephone 0121 414 6566
Vassiliy joined the School of Immunity and in February 2012 as a Birmingham Fellow. He is a
structural biologist with a strong track-record in membrane protein research and is currently
setting up his independent research group at Birmingham. His interest is in fundamental
principles of membrane protein function and dynamics, and specifically structural determinants
underlying the function of multidrug efflux pumps and bacterial protein secretion machinery.
Vassiliy is also actively involved in development of novel methods for structural biology research
in application to membrane proteins, and has pioneered the use of X-ray radiolytic footprinting
technique. His other achievements include X-ray structure solution of several high-profile
membrane proteins.
Mr Andrew Beggs, Wellcome Trust Postdoctoral Clinician Scientist, School of Cancer Sciences
Contact details: Email a.beggs@bham.ac.uk, Telephone 0121 414 7458
Andrew started his doctoral research in 2007 when he was appointed a research registrar in
Colorectal Surgery at Croydon University Hospital, undertaking research leading to the award of
a PhD in the laboratory of Professor Ian Tomlinson at Cancer Research UK, latterly at the
University of Oxford. The main focus of the research was into genomic instability in colorectal
cancer. As part of this research he carried out examination of crypt level heterogeneity in
colorectal polyps, whole genome methylation of colorectal cancer & adenomas, double strand
DNA break repair, pathogenesis of serrated adenomas and tumour heterogeneity. Subsequent
to his research, he was appointed to the higher surgical training scheme in South-West London
and Surrey in 2010 as a Specialty Registrar in General Surgery.
Andrew is a Clinical Lecturer in General Surgery in the School of Cancer Sciences, and currently
holds a Wellcome Trust Postdoctoral Fellowship for Clinician Scientists.
His current research programme is examining the molecular stratification of rectal cancer. He is
also carrying out research into soft tissue sarcoma using next generation sequencing
technologies, biomarker development technologies and runs a bioinformatics “dry-lab” to
search for novel therapeutic targets and stratification markers.
Dr Alexander Brill, Birmingham Fellow, Cardiovascular and Respiratory Sciences, School of
Clinical and Experimental Medicine
Contact details: Email a.brill@bham.ac.uk, Telephone 0121 415 8679
Alex has a strong background in different models of thrombosis, inflammation and microscopy.
His main research interests are mechanisms of cardiovascular diseases, such as deep vein
thrombosis and stroke, and identifying new targets to prevent and treat these disorders.
Alex received his undergraduate and graduate degrees (MD and PhD) from Saratov State
University, Russia. He did his first postdoctoral training with Professor Ofer Lider at the
Weizmann Institute of Science, (Israel) studying mechanisms of T cell adhesion and migration. In
2007, he moved to Boston (USA) and did another postdoc at Harvard University in the group of
Professor Denisa Wagner. Alex joined the Birmingham Platelet Group in March 2013.
Dr Zumla Cader, LLR Visiting Clinical Fellow, Consultant Paediatrician, School of Cancer
Sciences
Contact details: Email F.Z.Cader@bham.ac.uk
Zumla completed her PhD with Paul Murray in the School of Cancer Sciences before becoming a
clinical lecturer in paediatrics. Zumla now holds an LLR visiting fellowship to work in the
laboratories of Professor Margaret Shipp in Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard To continue
her work on Hodgkin Lymphoma. Zumla’s work focuses on how Hodgkin lymphoma cells evade
the immune system. Specifically establishing a framework to define the molecular signature of
aberrant PD-1 signalling in patients with cHL, developing an informative CyTOF panel for the
simultaneous assessment of viable lymphoma cells and infiltrating immune cells. Utilising the
optimised CyTOF panel to assess the efficacy of PD-1 signalling blockade in patients with
relapsed/refractory cHL.
Dr Adam Croft, Welcome Trust Postdoctoral Clinical Research Fellow, Rheumatology, School of
Immunity and Infection
Adam originally trained as a basic scientist in cell biology, then took a PhD specialising in stem
cell biology and regenerative medicine at Durham before undertaking his medical degree in
Birmingham as a graduate entry student. He is currently a Rheumatology Registrar who has
progressed through the academic training pathway. Adam is investigating the interactions
between regulatory T cells and synovial fibroblasts in inflammatory arthritis. His research is
based at the Rheumatology Research Group and he is sponsored by Professor Christopher
Buckley and Professor Graham Anderson. He will also collaborate closely with Professor Derek
Gilroy (UCL) and Professor Alexander Betz (MRC, Cambridge).
Dr Clare C Davies, Birmingham Fellow, MRC New Investigator School of Cancer Sciences
Contact details: Email c.c.davies@bham.ac.uk, Telephone 0121 414 9237
Clare completed her PhD at the School of Cancer Sciences. She then completed two postdoctoral positions working with Dr Axel Behrens at the CRUK London Research Institute, and Dr
Cathy Tournier based at the University of Manchester. In 2012 Clare was awarded a Birmingham
Fellowship focusing on the role of arginine methylation in cancer development. She now holds
an MRC New Investigator grant.
Dr Daniel Fulton, Birmingham Fellow, School of Clinical and Experimental Medicine
Contact details: Email d.fulton@bham.ac.uk, Telephone 0121 414 8441
Daniel obtained his PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Sussex in 2003 where his thesis
focused on the cellular mechanisms of learning and memory. Following his PhD he pursued
postdoctoral research at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) where he continued to
work on synaptic plasticity and learning and memory. In 2007 he joined the lab of Anthony
Campagnoni (also at UCLA) where he began his work on glial biology. Daniel’s work as a
Research Neuroscientist in the Campagnoni lab focused on the physiological properties of
oligodendrocytes and the expression of novel myelin proteins within striatal neurons. In 2010
Daniel was awarded a Senior Fellowship with the Science City Research Alliance and in 2011 he
obtained a Marie Curie Career Integration Grant. Using these fellowships Daniel returned to the
UK to pursue independent work at the University of Warwick investigating the role of neuronal
activityin oligodendrocyte development and myelin formation. In July 2013 Daniel moved to the
University of Birmingham to take up an appointment as a Birmingham Fellow where he is
establishing a Glial Biology group within the Neurotrauma and Neurodegeneration section of the
School of Clinical and Experimental Medicine.
Dr Aga Gambus, MRC Career Development Fellow, School of Cancer Sciences
Contact details: a.gambus@bham.ac.uk
After enjoying her PhD project in Dr Karim Labib’s lab in Manchester, Aga continued to work in
the field of eukaryotic DNA replication. Aga was awarded a Wellcome Trust Postdoctoral
Fellowship to study replication complexes using X.laevis egg extract in Prof Julian Blow’s lab,
Dundee. She moved to Birmingham in 2011 and recently started her own independent group as
an MRC CDA Fellow studying regulation of DNA replication by ubiquitylation/sumoylation.
Recently Aga has been awarded Lister Institute Research Prize for 2015 and the British
Association for Cancer Research (BACR) AstraZeneca Young Scientist Frank Rose Award for 2015
which will be presented to her at the forthcoming NCRI Conference in November.
Dr Rhys Grinter, Sir Henry Wellcome Fellow, Institute for Microbiology and Infection, School of
Immunity and Infection
Rhys’s research focusses on the structural and functional characterisation of a novel virulencerelated iron-uptake system in uropathogenic E. coli. This system has been shown to be
important for systemic infection of this pathogen, and evidence suggests it targets a eukaryotic
iron containing protein as its substrate. After completing his PhD at Glasgow University Rhys was
awarded a 4 year Sir Henry Wellcome Fellowship in 2014 hosted by Birmingham University. He
has begun his work in the laboratory of Professor Trevor Lithgow at Monash University,
Australia. He will also spend time in Professor Susan Buchanan’s lab at the NIH, USA where he
will use X-ray crystallography to characterise this system. In the final year of the award, Rhys will
return to Professor Ian Henderson’s lab in the Institute for Microbiology and Infection, to pursue
the longer-term aim of translating this research into medical outcomes.
Dr Johannes Hofland, Marie-Curie Intra-European Clinical Research Fellow, School of Clinical
and Experimental Medicine
Contact details: Email j.hofland@bham.ac.uk, Telephone 07707 529 318
Johanne’s translational research focuses on the regulatory mechanisms of steroid hormone
production, with special emphasis on cancer. This has involved elucidating the role of circulating
(ACTH, arginine-vasopressin) and local factors (activin, inhibin) on adrenocortical production of
aldosterone, cortisol and androgens in health and diseases, such as adrenal hyperplasia, adenomas
and cancer. The other main research theme comprises the study of intratumoral steroidogenesis in
prostate cancer as a possible cause for castration resistance and disease progression. His
interdisciplinary research has aimed to unravel the complex interplay between circulating adrenal
androgens and intracrine androgen conversion. His current fellowship at CEDAM serves to
investigate the contribution of a novel androgen synthesis pathway within prostate cancer cells to
resistance to castration and second line hormonal treatments. This will be accomplished through a
steroid metabolome analysis in translational models, giving a unique and complete insight into
androgen metabolism in prostate cancer.
Dr Maarten Hoogenkamp , LLR Bennett Fellow, School of Cancer Sciences
Contact details: Email m.hoogenkamp@bham.ac.uk
From 1994 to 1999 Maarten studied biology at Utrecht University (NL). He performed his PhD in
Medicine from 1999 to 2004 at the University of Amsterdam (NL) by studying the transcriptional
regulation underlying the zonal expression of proteins in the liver.
Maarten then moved to the University of Leeds (UK) to take up a postdoctoral post with
Professor Constanze Bonifer, where he studied the regulation of transcription factor genes in
relation to the cellular identity within the haematopoietic system.
After being awarded a Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research Bennett Fellowship he moved to the
University of Birmingham in the summer of 2012 to start up his independent line of research. His
research focusses on the molecular mechanisms driving differentiation and cell fate decisions in
healthy cells and how these processes are perturbed in disease and in particular during
cancerogenesis. This is studied at the level of transcription factor binding to the DNA and the
resulting changes to the chromatin structure and gene expression within the haematopoietic
system.
Dr Jackson.C Kirkman-Brown, NIHR Fellow and Reader in Human Reproductive Science, School
of Clinical and Experimental Medicine
Contact details: Email j.kirkmanbrown@bham.ac.uk, Telephone 0121 627 2739
Jackson is interested in the potential impact of research into andrology on both diagnosis and
treatment of infertility. He strongly believes that research in the area can have a rapid and direct
impact not only on care, and therefore birth of the next generation, but also quality of life for
the patients involved. Jackson's role as Science Lead at Birmingham Women’s Fertility Centre
has provided him with a number of amazing opportunities including coordinating one of the
largest regional Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) services. Jackson has also been
privileged to be able to have the opportunity to setup, develop and create the laboratory
techniques and services for Fertility Preservation in the event of catastrophic genital injury. This
work was undertaken with the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine and recognised with him
being conferred an MBE and most recently being named as the Chief Scientific Officer's
Healthcare Scientist of 2014 by Professor Sue Hill.
Professor Gareth Lavery, MRC Senior Fellow Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, School
of Clinical and Experimental Medicine
Contact details: Email g.g.lavery@bham.ac.uk, Telephone 0121 414 3917
Gareth qualified with a BSc (Hons) in Genetics from the University of Wales, Swansea in 1998.
He went on to study for a PhD in Medicine at the University of Birmingham, receiving this is
2003. He then went on to study for 3 years a as a research fellow at the University of Texas
Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas in the USA. Subsequently Gareth joined the Department
of Medical Sciences at the University of Birmingham in 2005. Since then he has progressed and
in 2009 secured a prestigious 5 year BBSRC David Phillips Career Development Fellowship,
allowing him to become an independent researcher and establish his own group. Last year he
was awarded an MRC Senior Fellowship. Gareth’s research interests are in pre receptor steroid
metabolism, redox regulation of steroid hormone metabolism, translational endocrine
physiology, healthy aging, metabolic regulation.
Dr Heather Long, Kay Kendall Fellow, lecturer School of Cancer Sciences
Contact details: Email h.m.long@bham.ac.uk, Telephone 0121 414 2808
Heather joined the School of Cancer Sciences in 2001 and obtained her PhD in 2005. After postdoctoral research projects in the laboratory of Prof Alan Rickinson, in 2012 Heather was
awarded a Kay Kendall Leukaemia Fellowship including 3 months at the Ludwig Institute in
Brussels. Heather’s research focuses on understanding the specificity and
function of CD4+ T cells with the greatest potential to target lymphoma.
Dr Alexandra Mazharian PhD, BHF Post-doctoral Fellow, Cardiovascular and Respiratory
Sciences, School of Clinical and Experimental Medicine
Contact details: Email a.mazharian@bham.ac.uk, Telephone 0121 415 8678
Alexandra is a British Heart Foundation Post-doctoral Research Fellow working in the School of
Clinical and Experimental Medicine and an integral member of the Birmingham Platelet Group.
Alexandra has a strong background in haemostasis and signal transduction. Her main research
interests are signalling events regulating megakaryocyte development and platelet formation.
Alexandra earned her PhD degree at Université Denis-Diderot, Paris VII, France, investigating the
role of MAP Kinases in platelet adhesion and activation under the supervision of Dr. Marijke
Bryckaert at the Centre of Cardiovascular Research of Lariboisiere, INSERM Paris. She
immigrated to England in 2007 to do post-doctoral work in the laboratory of Professor Steve
Watson in the Institute of Biomedical Research at the University of Birmingham. Her main
project is the investigation of signalling events regulating megakaryocytopoesis, megakaryocyte
migration and platelet formation.
Dr Helen McGettrick, ARUK Fellow, School of Immunity and Infection
Contact details: Email h.m.mcgettrick@bham.ac.uk.
Helen completed her PhD in Medical Sciences at the University of Birmingham. She has
continued to work in Birmingham investigating the processes controlling leukocyte recruitment
during inflammation. Specifically, focusing on how these are influenced by stromal cells and how
they are altered in chronic inflammatory diseases such as Rheumatoid Arthritis.
Dr Francis Mussai, CRUK Clinician Scientist and Consultant Paediatrician, School of Cancer
Sciences
Contact details: Email f.j.mussai@bham.ac.uk, Telephone 0121 333 8728
Frank read Medicine at the University of Oxford graduating in 2004 and went on to complete his
General Paediatrics training at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford under the stewardship of Dr
Chris Mitchell. In 2007, Frank was accepted onto the Johns Hopkins-National Institutes of Health
Joint Fellowship Program in Paediatric Haematology/Oncology (USA) and underwent subspeciality training. Whilst at the NIH, he began doctoral studies, through a Wellcome Trust-NIH
Studentship. Under the mentorship of Dr Ira Pastan and Dr Alan Wayne, Frank investigated the
cytotoxicity of a novel anti-CD22 immunotoxin against paediatric Acute Lymphoblastic
Leukaemia. In 2010, Frank returned to the University of Oxford to complete his doctoral studies
in Professor Vincenzo Cerundolo’s laboratory. He investigated the mechanisms in which Acute
Myeloid Leukaemia blasts create an immunosuppressive niche and suppress haematopoiesis. In
2012, Frank moved to Birmingham to lead a research group investigating the
immunosuppressive microenvironment created by paediatric malignancies. Clinically, Frank is an
honorary Paediatric Oncology Consultant at the Birmingham Children’s Hospital. He continues to
work on the development of early phase clinical trials for paediatric cancers, and is a member of
the Innovative Therapies for Children with Cancer (ITCC) European Clinical Trials Committee.
Dr Ye Htun Oo, MRC Clinician Scientist and Consultant Hepatologist, Centre for Liver
Research, School of Immunity and Infection
Contact details: Email y.h.oo@bham.ac.uk, Telephone 0121 414 8700
Telephone (2) 0121 414 6967
Ye is a clinical academic and his major clinical interest include liver transplantation, viral and
autoimmune hepatitis. He conducts dedicated viral and autoimmune hepatitis clinics, involved in
DAA clinical trials and hepatitis C vaccination trials. He is an Honorary Consultant Hepatologist in
Liver Transplant and Hepato-biliary Department at University Hospital Birmingham NHS
Foundation Trust. Ye’s major basic research interests are in hepatic tolerance, pathogenesis of
liver inflammation and repair in autoimmune liver diseases, chronicity of HCV & HBV infection
and operational tolerance. He aims to translate understanding of scientific background for
future cell and cytokine therapy for patients with autoimmune, viral hepatitis and in liver
transplantation. His current focus is on understanding the balance of effector immune cells and
regulatory T/B cells in human liver inflammation. He aims to restore immune homeostasis with
GMP grade autologous regulatory T cells as part of his translational cell therapy programme.
Dr Paola de Pablo, NIHR Fellow, Rheumatology School of Health and Population Sciences &
School of Immunity and Infection
Contact details: Email p.depablo@bham.ac.uk, Telephone 0121 371 3262
After completing Specialist Training in Rheumatology in 2001, Paola pursued a Masters Degree
in Public Health at Harvard University, with a focus on Clinical Effectiveness. She obtained a PanAmerican Fellowship from the Fogarty International Center-National Institutes of Health
(NIH)/Conacyt and a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Arthritis Foundation (USA) to undertake
training in clinical research methods and epidemiology at the Department of Rheumatology,
Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. After completing her postdoctoral
fellowship she was appointed an Assistant Professor in Medicine at the Tufts University Medical
School, where she worked until she moved to the UK to join the Rheumatology Research Group
in Birmingham in 2008. In 2014 she was awarded an NIHR postdoctoral Fellowship.
Dr Jo Parish, Royal Society University Research Fellow and Senior Lecturer, School of Cancer
Sciences.
Contact details: Email j.l.parish@bham.ac.uk, Telephone 0121 415 8151
Jo qualified with a B.Sc. (Hons) in Biochemistry from the University of Bristol in 1998. She
obtained her Ph.D from the University of Bristol in 2002 studying virus-host interactions of
human papillomavirus (HPV). She was then appointed as a Research Fellow at the University of
Massachusetts Medical School, USA. In 2007. Jo was awarded a Royal Society University
Research Fellowship and moved to the University of St Andrews. In 2012, she was appointed
Senior Lecturer in Cancer Sciences.
During her postdoctoral research Jo became interested in HPV-host interactions that are
required for the maintenance and persistence of HPV genomes in infected cells. She discovered
an interaction between the HPV E2 protein and the cellular DNA helicase ChlR1 and went on the
show that this interaction is necessary for HPV persistence. The interaction between ChlR1 and
E2, and its importance in the persistence of HPV infections remains one of the focuses of Jo’s
research portfolio. The potential for this important virus-host interaction as a novel therapeutic
target is currently being investigated. Jo is also interested in the cellular pathways important for
host cell genome stability that HPVs target to facilitate persistence. Her laboratory continues to
study the functional role of ChlR1 in genome integrity and uses a variety of cellular and
biochemical techniques to study the function of ChlR1 and key binding partners in the
maintenance of genome stability.
Dr Amanda Rossiter, Sir Henry Wellcome Fellow , Institute of Microbiology and Infection,
School of Immunity and Infection
Contact details: Email a.e.rossiter@bham.ac.uk
After receiving a PhD in 2007 from the University of Birmingham, Amanda continued in Prof Ian
Henderson’s group as a Research Fellow to investigate the applications of bacterial secretion
systems as a platform for vaccine delivery. In June 2013, Amanda will begin her Sir Henry
Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship, which has allowed her to work between the Monash
Institute for Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia and the University of Birmingham, to
further our understanding of Helicobacter pylori and its role in the development of gastric
cancer.
Dr Claire Shannon-Lowe, MRC Research Fellow, Lecturer, School of Cancer Sciences
Contact details: Email c.shannonlowe@bham.ac.uk, Telephone 0121 414 4495
Claire studied for a PhD in Virology at The Royal Free and University College Medical School in
London where she worked on Cytomegalovirus resistance to antivirals in AIDS patients. She then
went on to post-doctoral research here at the School of Cancer Sciences with Professors HenriJacques Delecluse, Alan Rickinson and Martin Rowe. In 2011 Claire was awarded a MRC New
Investigator Award.
Her Laboratory focuses on the mechanisms used by Epstein Barr virus to gain access to cells not
expressing the virus receptor, but following ectopic infection have a very strong association with
various malignancies. Claire has a research grant from the MRC and has been co-applicant on
grants from the Association for International Cancer Research (AICR), Leukaemia and Lymphoma
Research (LLR) and Cancer Research UK.
Dr Shishir Shetty PhD, MRCP, Wellcome Trust Intermediate Clinical Fellow and Honorary
Consultant Hepatologist, School of Immunity and Infection
Contact details: Email s.shetty@bham.ac.uk, Telephone 0121 415 8700
Shishir is a clinician scientist in the Centre for Liver Research and honorary consultant
hepatologist at the Queen Elizabeth Liver Transplant Unit, Birmingham. He has received grant
funding from the Wellcome Trust, the Core Charity and the Bardhan Research and Education
Trust.
Shishir’s research focus is the regulation of leucocyte recruitment to the liver and the role of
novel adhesion molecules including C-type lectins. The overall aim is to identify new targets of
therapy for inflammatory liver disease and primary liver cancer. His clinical interests include the
management of hepatocellular cancer and co-existing liver disease.
Dr Alexandra Sinclair, NIHR Clinician Scientist, Consultant Neurologist, School of Clinical and
Experimental Medicine
Contact details: Email a.b.sinclair@bham.ac.uk, Telephone 0121 414 8857
Alex graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2000 and attained her MRCP in 2003. She
then trained as a Neurology Specialist Registrar in the West Midlands before taking time out of
her training to pursue research interests as a Medical Research Council, Clinical Research
Training Fellow at the University of Birmingham. Dr Sinclair now works as a Clinician Scientist
with a role combining clinical neurology with translational research into idiopathic intracranial
hypertension and the neuroendocrine aspects of headache.
Professor Grant Stewart, CR-UK Senior Fellow and Lister Institute Fellow, School of Cancer
Sciences
Contact details: Email g.s.stewart@bham.ac.uk, Telephone 0121 414 9168
Grant received his first degree at the University of Bristol (1996). He subsequently joined the
laboratory of Professor Malcolm Taylor at the University of Birmingham to do a Ph.D. studying
the heterogeneity of the chromosomal instability syndrome, Ataxia-Telangiectasia (A-T), and the
role of the ATM (Ataxia-Telangiectasia Mutated) gene in sporadic leukaemia. Continuing his
growing interest in the cellular response to DNA damage, he moved in 2002, with a European
Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) Long Term Fellowship, to the laboratory of Professor
Stephen Elledge at Baylor College of Medicine (Houston, Texas). Whilst at Baylor, he identified a
novel DNA double strand break repair protein called Mediator of DNA Damage Checkpoint 1
(MDC1) and demonstrated it played a role in recruiting other DSB responsive proteins to the
sites of DNA breaks to facilitate repair and cell cycle checkpoint activation.
In 2005 Grant moved back to the Birmingham with a CR-UK Career Development Fellowship to
start up his own laboratory investigating the function of the DNA DSB repair proteins, MDC1 and
53BP1, during the cellular response to DNA damage and also how defects in pathways
controlled by these proteins contribute to human disease and tumourigenesis. Recently his
group has identified a novel human immunodeficiency syndrome associated with defective
repair of DNA DSBs called RIDDLE syndrome. Through a collaboration his laboratory was able to
identify the gene mutated in RIDDLE syndrome as RNF168 and that the encoded protein
facilitates the recruitment of DSB repair proteins, such as 53BP1 and BRCA1, to sites of DNA
damage. Currently Grant’s laboratory is focusing on RIDDLE syndrome and determining how
RNF168 and the ubiquitin/SUMO system functions in the cell to coordinate DNA DSB repair,
which is in part funded by CR-UK Senior Fellowship and a Lister Institute Research Prize.
Dr Meltem Weger, Marie Curie Research Fellow, Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism
School of Clinical and Experimental Medicine
Contact details: Email m.weger@bham.ac.uk, Telephone 0121 415 8705
Meltem has received her PhD from the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and is currently
working as a Marie-Curie Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the laboratory of Dr Nils Krone. Her
key research focus is the implementation of zebrafish as translational in vivo model for inborn
errors of steroidogenesis and metabolic disorders. Furthermore, she is interested in the role of
transcription factors involved in the development and regulation of the endocrine system.