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Shamanthi Jayasooriya, CL in Primary Care – NIHR Advanced Fellow 2024

Shamanthi Jayasooriya, former CL, is an academic GP with an NIHR advanced fellowship exploring underdiagnosis of Chronic Obstructive Airways Disease (COPD) in underserved populations, using a mixed methods explanatory sequential study design. Her study will assess COPD prevalence and identify challenges in primary care, with the goal of improving early diagnosis and outcomes in underserved communities.

She works closely with the Global Asthma Network on improving access to inhalers, having co-led a multi-stakeholder event, with World Health Organisation representation. She used the Delphi method to create Clinical Standards for Asthma care in low- and middle-income countries and most recently was first author on an asthma review paper in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. 

She holds advocacy and consultancy roles both at a national (British Thoracic Society Global Lung Health Group) and international level (World Health Organisation, Global Alliance for Chronic Respiratory Disease). These networks have supported her academic development and led to publications in The Lancet on non-communicable chronic respiratory disease and in The Lancet Infectious Disease on TB Survivors. 

Johnathan Cooper-Knock, CL Neurology from 2015.  Wellcome Clinical Research Career Development Fellowship 2020

Johnathan Cooper-Knock, former ACF and CL, now holds an Intermediate Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Career Development Fellowship and is an Honorary Consultant in Neurology.  He is working on the discovery of novel genetic risk factors for motor neuron disease (MND) at SITraN. His PhD by publication was funded by an MRC-MND Association Lady Edith Wolfson PhD Fellowship during the time between ACF and CL appointments. He gained a Wellcome Fellowship (£438,088, commenced July 2020) to identify changes in the non-coding genome that alter risk of MND which has already led to the first identification of a risk factor for MND located within a gene-enhancer and was published in Cell Reports. He is leader of the ‘Non-Coding Genome’ Working Group within Project MinE which is the largest disease-specific whole genome sequencing consortium for any disease. Key collaborations are with Stanford University, USA and the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. He gained an ENCALS Young Investigator award 2018.  He frequently publishes in high impact journals including Neuron, Cell Reports, Molecular Cell and Brain; h-index 24.

Thomas Darton, CL Infectious Diseases - Florey Advanced Clinical Fellowship 2018

Tom Darton, former ACF and CL, is now a Florey Advanced Fellow and Honorary Consultant in Infectious Diseases. His active grants support work investigating novel diagnostic signatures for patients presenting with fever in low-resource settings (£1.1m BMGF, PI),  assessing the impact of typhoid conjugate vaccination antimicrobial resistance in Zimbabwe (£400K WT, PI), developing new treatment strategies for patients with typhoid in Asia (£3.4m MRC JGHT, co-I), exploring the transmission of a virulent PVL-MRSA clone in Sri Lanka (£40k GCRF, PI), developing new vaccine candidates to prevent Staphylococcal infection (£160k GSK, PI) in addition to a recent NIHR AMR capital infrastructure award (£1.4m NIHR). During the COVID pandemic Tom has been PI on several COVID19 vaccine (COV002, ENSEMBLE2) and treatment trials (Remdesivir Severe, AGILE) and has worked to develop vaccine research infrastructure in the region. Tom has contributed to WHO guidance on the bioethical use of human challenge studies in vaccine evaluation, surveillance of vaccine-preventable disease and measuring the impact of vaccines on antimicrobial resistant infection. Recent research publications include work published in Science, BMJ and the Lancet.

James Alix, CL Neurophysiology - Senior Clinical Lectureship 2018

James Alix, CL Neurophysiology 2015 -2018, is now a Senior Clinical Lecturer. His research interests concern new diagnostic techniques for nerve and muscle disorders, with a particular focus on motor neurone disease. He conducted the first trial of 3-dimensional electrical impedance myography, winning the Lord Adrian Prize from the British Society for Clinical Neurophysiology and has developed optical EMG, a electrophysiology/biochemical spectroscopy technique to study muscle. His funding as PI includes one MRC DPFS award (£1M), an MND accelerator award to link clinical and preclinical electrophysiology (co-PI, £360,000), three MRC Confidence in Concept awards for the development of new technologies for neuromuscular diseases (combined total £170,000); Motor Neurone Disease Association grants for preclinical and clinical phenotype studies (c£280,000) and EPSRC PhD DTP (c£60,000) on advanced data analysis. He has submitted two patents. He is a member of the UKRI Interdisciplinary Assessment College. Key publications are in Brain, Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, Clinical Neurophysiology, Analytical Chemistry and ACS Chemical Neuroscience.

Paul Morris, CL Cardiology, - Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Career Development Fellowship 2018

Paul Morris, CL Cardiology 2016 - 2020, is now a Senior Clinical Lecturer and Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Career Development Fellow. Grants (focused on developing novel computational technologies to quantify coronary blood flow): EPSRC Health Technologies Connectivity Awards (£429,872). UK Civil Aviation Authority (£240,000); EPSRC PhD DTP, £60,000 2021; UKRI NPIF QR £35,000. 2021; University of ��«Ӱҵ /EPSRC KE award £20000 2021; EPSRC. Knowledge Exchange Grant, £54,910, 2020; University of ��«Ӱҵ Public Engagement Fund, £6000, 2020; EPSRC. PhD Scholarship, 2019, c£60,000; Saudi Cultural Bureau, PhD Scholarship, 2019, £53,450; Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Career Development Fellowship. Personal Fellowship. £570,730, August 20192023; British Heart Foundation Translational award, £297,253, 2019; Medical Research Council, Confidence in Concept award, £72,565, 2018, Principal Investigator. Paul is working with the UK Civil Aviation Authority to develop computer modelling techniques to risk stratify commercial spaceflight. He has two patent applications: GuideGlide; a novel catheter guiding device and virtu-Q - a method for determining volumetric blood flow. He was awarded best eHealth and digital health technology for virtuQ at the ESC World Congress of Cardiology, Paris, France, 2019. He is Director for Clinical Translation at Insigneo Institute for In Silico Medicine, and sits on several national and international research advisory and steering committees.

Significant papers

Charlotte Elder, CL Paediatrics - Senior Clinical Lectureship in Paediatric Endocrinology 2018

Charlotte Elder, CL in Paediatrics 2015-2018, is now a Senior Clinical Lecturer. Her principal research focus is the development of a novel, non-invasive diagnostic test (Nasacthin Test) and salivary cortisone as a non-invasive screening test both for adrenal insufficiency. A patent application for Nasacthin has been filed in seven international territories and granted in...*. She has been awarded £387,000 in grant funding as lead or sole applicant. MRC DPFS in 2022 (£1.06m), MRC UKRI Biomedical Sciences Innovations Scholars Secondment in 2021 (£156k), MRC Confidence in Concepts recipient 2016 (£84,988) and 2018 (£83,730). Other grants include Academy of Medical Science starter grant for CL 2016 (£30,000) and annual British Society for Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes research prize 2015 (£15,000) and four grants from ��«Ӱҵ’s Children’s Hospital Charity totalling £160,395. Recent relevant publications: 

• A retrospective study on weaning glucocorticoids and recovery of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Arshad FA, Elder CJ, Newell-Price J, Ross RJ, Debono M. J Clin Endocrinol Metabol 2024. Volume 109, Issue 11, November 2024, Pages e2031–e2037, https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgae059
• Multivariable model to predict an ACTH stimulation test to diagnose adrenal insufficiency using previous test results. Lawrence NR, Arshad MF, Pofi R, Ashby S, Dawson J, Tomlinson JW, Newell-Price J, Ross RJ, Elder CJ*, Debono M* (* joint senior authors). J Endocr Soc. 2023 Oct 7;7(12):bvad127.
• Real world evidence supports waking salivary cortisone as a screening test for adrenal insufficiency. Debono M, Caunt S, Elder CJ, Fearnside J, Lewis J, Keevil BG, Dixon S, Ross RJ. Clin Endocrinol. 2023;1‐8.
• Emergency and Peri-operative Management of Adrenal insufficiency in Children and Young People: British Society for Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes Consensus Guidance. Mushtaq T, Ali SR, Boulos N, Boyle R, Cheetham T, Davies JH, Elder CJ et al. Arch Dis Child. doi:10.1136/ archdischild-2022-325156
• Home Waking Salivary Cortisone to Screen for Adrenal Insufficiency. Debono M, Elder CJ et al. NEJM-Evidence 2023;2(2) DOI: 10.1056/EVIDoa2200182
• Salivary steroid collection in children under conditions replicating home sampling. Tonge JJ, Keevil BG, Craig JN, Whitaker M, Ross RJ, Elder CJ. J Clin Endocrinol Metabol 2022 
• Elder CJ, Vilela R, Johnson TN, Taylor RN, Kemp EH, Keevil BG, Cross AS, Ross RJ, Wright NP. Pharmacodynamic studies of nasal tetracosactide with salivary glucocorticoids for a non-invasive Short Synacthen Test. JCEM 2020; 105(8): 2692-2703.
• Elder CJ, Harrison RH, Cross AS, Vilela R, Keevil BG, Wright NP, Ross RJ. Use of salivary cortisol and cortisone in the high- and low-dose Synacthen test. Clin Endocrinol (Oxf.) 2018,88:772-778 (DOI: 10.1111/cen.13509)
• Cross AS, Kemp EH, White A, Walker L, Meredith S, Sachdev P, Krone NP, Ross RJ, Wright NP, Elder CJ. International survey on high- and low-dose synacthen test and assessment of accuracy in preparing low-dose synacthen. Clin Endocrinol (Oxf.) 2018;88:744-751 

She was appointed Senior CL paediatric Endocrinology in 2018 (part time, initially 1 day per week, increasing to 2.5 days) and was taken on as a permanent member of UoS staff following the completion of her UKRI Biomedical Sciences Innovations Scholars Secondment in June 2024. Charlotte has an interest in medical education and has been lead for Paediatric Endocrinology module on the Clinical Endocrinology & Diabetes MSc course. She is Deputy Director of Phase 3a and represents UoS as a partner governor on the Board of Governors at ��«Ӱҵ Children’s NHS Foundation Trust. 

Alex Rothman,  CL Cardiology 2016 - Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellow 2017-2023 (dyslexic) – Professor of Cardiology 2024

Alex Rothman, SCL Cardiology from 2016 and Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Career Development Stage 1 Fellowship 2017-2022. The Phase IIb, MRC ILA Heart study was the first randomised trial to demonstrate the therapeutic tractability of Interleukin-1 signalling in coronary artery disease with findings published in the European Heart Journal and the New England Journal of Medicine. The study was validated by CANTOS, a phase III study of over 10,000 patients published in the New England Journal of   Medicine citing his work, and latterly by COLCOT and LoDoCo2, also published in the New England Journal of Medicine. He has taken one additional drug from discovery to phase IIb clinical study with a major pharmaceutical company, with the novel mechanism of action described by his first author publication in Cell (can only include the manuscript publication if the manuscript has been fully published by the time the site goes live). He developed a pulmonary artery denervation catheters and procedures which have successfully completed multicentre first in human studies resulting in FDA breakthrough device designation and forthcoming FDA approval studies. He developed a novel pulmonary artery pressure monitor and heart failure management system which has also successfully completed multicentre first in human, CE-mark and FDA approval studies. In 2024/2025 the device was approved by the FDA and reimbursement approved by CMS leading to acquisition by Edwards for ~$700m. Multiple patents underpin funding for both projects and the work underpinning the development of the pulmonary artery pressure monitor and heart failure management system was returned by ��«Ӱҵ as an Impact Case in REF 2021. Additionally, IP derived from Alex’s research has been licenced to form multiple companies. Current device development work is funded by awards from the EPSRC, Innovate UK and BHF (~£2.8m). Based on these drug and device development and clinical trial experiences Alex and the team have multiple large UKRI and commercial awards (NIHR EME, MRC DPFS, MRC Exp Med and EPSRC – study funding ~£7m) to undertake digitally enhanced decentralised clinical trials the first of which is now published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine (again needs to be out if quoted). These advances have been recognised by awards including a Royal College of Physicians Quincentennial Lecture, the American Heart Association Young Investigator Award, the British Society of Cardiology Young Investigator Award, British Thoracic Society Young Investigator Award, the ESC Digital Health Technology Award, Trans-catheter Therapeutics Innovation Award, Technology and Heart Failure Therapeutics Innovation Award.

Significant papers

Andrew Swift, CL Radiology 2014, Stage II Wellcome Trust Clinical Career Development Fellow (2017-2022)

Andrew Swift is now a Wellcome Trust Stage 2 Clinical Career development fellow £828K (2017) undertaking artificial intelligence in cardiothoracic imaging research. He is PI on a Wellcome Trust Digital innovator award £627K (2019), and PI on a NIHR AI in health and care award £836K (2020), utilising IP developed in ��«Ӱҵ. He holds a patent for a tensor-based machine learning approach to improve diagnosis and prognostication in cardiac disease. He is the principal supervisor for a 4Ward North PhD Fellowship for a Radiologist ACF candidate, £250K (2020), and another ACF who is now on a Wellcome research PhD connected to the digital innovator award (2019). He is also the primary supervisor of an ACL in Radiology. He is the founder of the pulmonary vascular research institute imaging work group and member of the NIHR TRC PH research strategy group. His current team includes 5 PhD students (3 Radiologists, 1 Medical Physicist and 1 junior medic), 1 post-doctoral researcher, 1 research associate, 1 MSc student and 1 BSc student.

Thushan de Silva MBE, CL Infectious Diseases and Microbiology (2013 - 2016) - Wellcome Trust Intermediate Clinical Fellowship 2016-2021 between Imperial College, MRC Unit The Gambia at LSHTM and ��«Ӱҵ; Senior Clinical Lecturer and Honorary Consultant Physician in Infectious Diseases, ��«Ӱҵ, 2021-

Thushan holds a Wellcome Trust Intermediate Clinical Fellowship evaluating immunogenicity of intranasal influenza vaccine (LAIV) and viral-bacterial interactions in Gambian children (£1.3 million) and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) award for $449K (2019-2022) to look at the induction of broadly cross-reactive antibodies to conserved influenza antigens following LAIV. His first main output from the Wellcome Trust fellowship is a senior author paper in The Lancet Resp Med (2019). He has had significant involvement in COVID-19 research since return to ��«Ӱҵ as SCL: 1) ��«Ӱҵ PI in COVID-19 Genomics Consortium UK (COG-UK), contributing to national effort to sequence SARSCoV2 (£530K), including co-authorship on papers in Cell, Cell, Host and Microbe and others; 2) COVID19 T-cell immunology studies as part of the ISARIC4C consortium, Coronavirus Immunology Consortium (CIC) and ��«Ӱҵ PI for DHSC-funded PITCH consortium (total £520K). He continues to be a PI in the Vaccines and Immunity Theme at MRC Gambia, with additional awards from BMGF for ~$250K and co-investigator on MRC award for £1.2 million on household transmission of respiratory viruses. He is the co-supervisor on three Wellcome Trust Clinical PhD fellowships in Global Health.

We are delighted that Thushan has been appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for his team’s spearheading research to help progress the fight against Covid-19. Since the start of the pandemic in the UK, Dr de Silva has been leading the ��«Ӱҵ Covid-19 Genomics group, which was formed in March 2020 as part of the national Covid-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium to track the spread and evolution of the virus.

Pankaj Garg, CL Cardiology - Associate professor, University of East Anglia

Pankaj Garg, CL Cardiology.  Pankaj has successfully attained a Wellcome Trust Clinical Career Development Fellowship and has been made fellow of the European Society of Cardiology. 

Pankaj is a co-applicant on Wellcome trust digital innovator award (£627K) and NIHR AI in health and care (£836K) awards.

Gordon Fuller, CL Emergency Medicine, currently holding an NIHR Research Methods Fellowship

Gordon is an Emergency Medicine consultant working at ��«Ӱҵ Teaching Hospitals Trust and also holds an NIHR Research Methods Fellowship. He was CI for the ACUTE trial while undertaking his Clinical Lectureship. He completed an NIHR ACF, an MPH specialising in Global Health, and an NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship before coming to ��«Ӱҵ where he undertook an NIHR Clinical Trials Fellowship and NIHR Clinical Lectureship prior to his current academic role. He is twice-winner of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine Rod Little prize for research. Research grants as CI have included: NIHR HTA Major Trauma Triage Study (£612K); NIHR HTA ACUTE: Ambulance CPAP: Use, Treatment effect and Economics randomised controlled trial (£420,000). Research grants as co-CI have included: NIHR HTA. DIPEP: Diagnosis and investigation of PE in Pregnancy; NIHR HTA. The Head Injury Transportation Straight to Neurosurgery (HITSNS) Trial; NIHR HTA; Packman study: RCT - prehospital ketamine v morphine for traumatic pain; NIHR HTA. TIME: Take home naloxone Intervention Multicentre Emergency setting feasibility trial; NIHR HTA. PHEWS - Prehospital sepsis screening tools. Head of research for World Rugby’s Head Injury Assessment Project.

Significant papers

Simon Bell, CL Neurology

Simon is a former ��«Ӱҵ ACF and gained a Wellcome Trust Clinical PhD Fellowship (£265K). He is a member of the European Academy of Neurology’s specialist committee for cognitive disorders, and is lead for ARUKs deep phenotyping in dementia for Yorkshire. He is co-author on a Lancet paper on Fluoxetine in stroke therapy.

Nick Weatherley, CL Respiratory Medicine 

Nick was awarded a research grant of £250K by Boehringer Ingelheim in 2019 to extend a study in use of multinuclear magnetic resonance imaging as a biomarker in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. He developed the original proposal and investment was made by Boehringer on the strength of conference presentations, linked to his PhD, culminating in a : Weatherley ND, Stewart NJ, Chan H-F, et al. Thorax Epub ahead of print: doi:10.1136/ thoraxjnl-2018-211851. Thorax: first published as 10.1136/thoraxjnl-2018-211851 on 2 November 2018.

Ruth Payne, CL Infectious Diseases and Microbiology 2018 - 2022, Senior Clinical Lecturer and Consultant Microbiologist 2022-

Ruth Payne, Senior Clinical Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Microbiology. Research interests include clinical vaccine trials, vaccine immunology and controlled human infection (‘challenge’) trials. Ruth is PI on multiple vaccine/ prophylactic therapeutics clinical trials, working with both academic and industry partners. She supervises a clinical PhD student and 2 clinical research fellows and her area of research focuses particularly on the early innate responses to vaccination. She has also conducted qualitative research to evaluate potential barriers and co-design solutions for improving transitions between clinical work and academia for academic trainees, and has since been appointed as one of the two academic supported return to training (SuppoRTT) champions for the Yorkshire and Humber region. In addition, she is one of the deputy academic training programme directors (TPD) in ��«Ӱҵ, and the deputy director for the ��«Ӱҵ Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Preparatory Course. During the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to working on multiple vaccine trials, Ruth contributed to the Academy of Medical Sciences reports on winter preparedness for 2020/21 and 2021/22, which gained high levels of support from senior government officials, including the Government Chief Scientific advisor. She was also a member of the British Society of Immunology and COVID-19 Taskforce, contributing to several reports  aimed at policymakers in the UK. She continues to work with the Academy of Medical Sciences on policy, currently working to develop guidance on sustainability in health research. 

Jenna Morgan, CL in General Surgery 

Dr Jenna Morgan is a Consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon with an academic career focused on improving the outcomes for older breast cancer patients. Following her NIHR Academic Clinical Lectureship in General Surgery at the University of ��«Ӱҵ, she secured a University Academic Clinical Consultant contract through a highly competitive NIHR Advanced Fellowship Award, which provided four years of dedicated research time.

Her research has significantly contributed to the field, evidenced by an H-index of 25, over 70 peer-reviewed publications, and more than 2600 citations, primarily centred on treatment decisions and outcomes in older breast cancer patients.

Dr Morgan has demonstrated a strong track record of securing substantial research funding. As primary applicant, they were awarded a £969,138.00 NIHR Advanced Fellowship to develop a decision aid for older, frailer breast cancer patients. She has also been a co-applicant on several significant grants, including:

• £69,629.16 from Crohn’s and Colitis UK, investigating patient perspectives on early bowel resection in Crohn’s disease.
• £9994.45 from BASO, examining the use of metabolomics, digital mobility sensors, and tissue senescence to predict surgical outcomes in cancer patients.
• £16200.00 from the A & F Green Charitable Trust, funding pilot research into biomarkers of ageing and clinical outcomes in older women.

Dr Morgan actively contributes to the advancement of breast surgery through their involvement in national organisations. She serves on the National Association of Breast Surgery Academic and Research Committees. She is also a steering committee member for several national breast trials, including SMALL, MARECA, LOLIPOP, and iBRA-NET Localisation studies.

Roslyn Simms, CL Renal Medicine

Roslyn gained an MRC Confidence in Concept grant 2016 and completed an NIHR Clinical Trials Fellowship in 2018. She was appointed as consultant nephrologist at ��«Ӱҵ in 2019. She is the current chair of the National Clinical Study Group for Cystic Diseases.

James Meiring CL in Infectious Diseases

Dr James E. Meiring Senior Clinical Lecturer, University of Liverpool and Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust Programme, UK/Malawi James Meiring is currently a senior clinical lecturer at the University of Liverpool, based at the Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust programme in Blantyre, Malawi. He is also an infectious disease clinician. His research interests focus on the epidemiology of enteric fever and prevention through vaccination. James has myriad experience both in largescale epidemiological studies and targeted clinical vaccine trials, the latter ranging from phase one trials to assessments of post-production impact. Previously Dr Meiring successfully completed an Academic Clinical Lectureship at the University of ��«Ӱҵ before moving to the University of Liverpool to take up his Senior Clinical Lecturer role.

https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/people/james-meiring

Other Successes 

Matthew Kurien, previous CL Gastroenterology - gained a Senior Clinical Lectureship 2017; Wael Sumaya, previous CL Cardiology - is now Assistant Professor in Interventional Cardiology, Dalhousie University (Halifax, Canada); Marcus Cumberbatch, CL Urology - obtained a one year Melbourne genitourinary oncology robotic fellowship at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Australia.