University of Birmingham
College of Medical and Dental Sciences
Fellows Symposium 2015
Leonard Deacon Lecture Theatre, Medical School
Thursday 9 July 2015
08.30Coffee
08.45Welcome- Professor Paul Moss
Session 1
Chair:Professor Jane McKeating
09.00Introduction by Chair
09.05Dr Hareth Al-Janabi, Birmingham Fellow,Health Economics
09.25Dr Mathew Coleman, MRC New Investigator, Cancer
09.45Dr Michele Buckner, AXA Fellow, Bacteriology – Antimicrobial Resistance
10.05Dr Yemisi Takwoingi, NIHR Fellow,Biostatistics - Test Evaluation
10.25Dr Anne Fletcher, Birmingham Fellow, Immunology
10.45Refreshment break
Session 2
Chair:Professor Tracy Roberts
11.10Introduction by Chair
11.15Dr Raoul Reulen, NIHR Fellow,Epidemiology -Cancer Survivorship
11.35Dr Rowan Hardy, ARUK Fellow, Endocrinology and Inflammation
11.55Dr Sovan Sarkar, Birmingham Fellow, Autophagy and Stem Cells
12.15Dr David Withers, WellcomeResearch Career Development Fellow, Immunology
12.45Lunch and opportunity for networking
Session 3
Chair:Professor David Adams
14.00Introduction by Chair
14.05Dr Joyce Yeung, NIHR Clinician Scientist in Anaesthesia
14.25Dr Oliver Goodyear, BBSRC Enterprise Fellow, immunology/tumour immunology
14.45Dr Zania Stamataki, Royal Society DH, Viral Immunology and Liver
15.05Dr Camela de Santo, CRUK New Investigator, Cancer
15.25Professor Yotis Senis, BHF Senior Fellow, Cardiovascular Sciences
15.45Closing summary – Professor Jane McKeating
16.05Drinks reception
Fellows Presenting
Session 109.05 / / Dr Hareth Al-Janabi, Birmingham Fellow, Health Economics, School of Health and Population Sciences
Contact details: ,Telephone0121 415 8483
Measuring the wider costs and benefits of treatments to patients’ family carers
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.
09.25 / / Dr Mathew Coleman, MRC New Investigator, School of Cancer Sciences
Contact details: Email , Telephone 0121 414 4484
OH, the places you'll go! Protein hydroxylation and its role in physiology and disease
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.
09.45 / / Dr Michelle Buckner, AXA Research Fund Fellowship, Antibiotic Resistance, Institute of Microbiology and Infection and School of Immunity and Infection
Contact details:Email: , Telephone 01214158693
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: , Telephone0121 414 7833
How reliable is the evidence for selecting diagnostic tests for patient care?
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.
10.25 / / Dr Anne Fletcher, Birmingham Fellow Immunology, School of Immunity and Infection
Contact details: Email
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 ,Telephone 0121 414 4946
Adverse health outcomes among five year survivors of a cancer diagnosed under age 40 years
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. Hewas 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.
11.35 / / Dr Rowan Hardy, ARUK Career Development Fellow, School of Experimental Medicine & School of Immunity and Infection
Contact details: Email
The Endocrinology of Inflammatory disease
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.
11.55 / / Dr Sovan Sarkar, Birmingham Fellow, School of Immunity and Infection
Contact details: Email , 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. Sovangraduated 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 mTOR-independent 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: , 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 theUniversity 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: ,Telephone01213713229
General anaesthesia versus regional anaesthesia in reducing post-operative delirium in patients with hip fractures
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.
14.25 / / Dr Oliver Goodyear, BBSRC Enterprise Fellow, School of Immunity and Infection
Contact details: Email , Telephone 07710537 388
Commercialisation of a novel label-free cell separation platform technology
Oli completed his PhD at the School of Cancer Sciences. He then completed two post-doctoral positions working with Professor Paul Moss and Professor Charlie Craddock also within the School of Cancer Studies. In 2011 Oliver took up another post-doctorate 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 label-free cell separation technology. His research interests are immunology/tumour immunology, cell therapy and cell separation
14.45 / / Dr Zania Stamataki, Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship,School of Immunity and Infection
Contact details:
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 / / Dr Camela de SantoCRUK New Investigator Fellow, School of Cancer Sciences,
Contact details: Email
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 MDSC-mediated 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.
15.25 / / Professor Yotis Senis, PhD, British Heart Foundation Senior Basic ScienceResearch Fellow, School of Clinical and Experimental Medicine
Contact details: Email , 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 ScientistContact details: Email , 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
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 ,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.