Introduction
I was an undergraduate and clinical student at Queen’s and then worked in a number of London hospitals including Guy’s, Lewisham, St Thomas’, Hammersmith and the Royal Brompton hospital. I returned to Oxford for my doctoral studies as a Medical Research Council Training Fellow. Following further clinical training I took up a Medical Research Council Clinician Scientist Fellowship and then spent a number of years as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Francisco and subsequently at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). I returned to Oxford in 2002, taking up a Medical Research Council Senior Fellowship in 2004, becoming a Reader in 2006 and Professor in 2011. I head a research group in the Nuffield Department of Medicine, practice clinical medicine as a consultant in general medicine and nephrology at the John Radcliffe and Churchill hospitals and teach clinical medical students. I completed a five-year term of office as Dean of the College in 2019 and I am Senior Treasurer of the Junior Common Room (JCR).
Teaching
At Queen’s I teach clinical medicine through a combination of bedside teaching in the hospital and tutorial teaching in the quieter atmosphere of college. I am a great believer in the value of the tutorial approach in the teaching of clinical medicine. I also supervise MSc and DPhil students in my research group.
Research
My research interest is in the role of the immune system in human disease. I am interested in understanding the recognition of diseased cells and using this knowledge to design new therapies. I am also interested in understanding chronic atherosclerotic vascular disease and chronic kidney disease and their genetic basis in order to improve their treatment. My laboratory uses a wide range of research approaches including structural, molecular and cellular biology, as well as studies involving patients.
Publications
For a full listing of my publications, please visit cocallag.github.io/group/publications/.