Queen's Now

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Introduction

I went to school at Chelmsford County High School in Essex, before studying Natural Sciences at Cambridge. During this time, I became fascinated with how the immune system makes critical decisions, and I therefore moved to the London Research Institute for my PhD with Dr Caetano Reis e Sousa. After a fantastic four years working out the signals to recognise fungal infections in the spleen, I realised it would be important to understand how this works earlier during infection at the body surfaces. I therefore moved to McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario to carry out a postdoc with Prof Andrew McPherson. During this time, we could demonstrate some of mechanisms used to contain the diverse consortium of microbes that resides in your large intestine. In 2011, I became an “Ambizione” junior group leader together with Prof Wolf-Dietrich Hardt at the ETH Zurich. I was promoted to Assistant Professor for Food Immunology in 2018, and to a full Professor for Mucosal Immunology in the Department of Health Sciences and Technology in 2022. I was appointed to the Barclay Williams Professorship for Molecular Immunology in 2023 at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology.

Teaching

I lecture on adaptive immunity for first-year Biomedical Sciences students. Internationally, I am involved in teaching “Research Integrity” for doctoral students and as a “didactic fellow”. My research group is open for the supervision of projects in the areas of mucosal immunology, vaccine design, and microbiome sciences.

Research

The Molecular Mucosal Immunology group is focused on understanding the complex relationship between intestinal bacteria, the host immune system, and intestinal physiology. This includes fundamental research in reductionist systems, addressing questions such as what mechanisms we human hosts use to control the gut microbiome, via novel technique development, through to translational mucosal vaccine development targeting critical intestinal pathogens. We currently have a major focus on eliminating antibiotic resistant pathogenic E. coli carriage in the gut.

Publications

http://www.slacklab.ethz.ch

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2473-1145

About me

My name is Neil, I’m from Tonbridge, Kent and I’m about to start my second year of my course in Medicine at Queen’s. I came to realise that I wanted to study medicine during the first term of year 12, recognising that a career combining both scientific research and communication skills as a means of genuinely improving the quality of life of others, would be a perfect fit for me. My first year studying medicine has affirmed for me that that choice was the correct one as I have been consistently both fascinated with the content presented to me in this course as well as enthralled by the dynamic teaching style of tutors and lecturers. 

College experience

Queen’s College’s welcoming and friendly environment helped establish for me on my first day of college a genuine sense of community which I found facilitated a smooth transition into university life. The fact that my accommodation was both comfortable and on the college site itself in first year, along with easily accessible and delicious catered food, further enabled this transition. 

Oxford life

My typical day would often involve carrying out my morning routine, eating breakfast in hall, thereby offering an opportunity to socialise with fellow students, and then walking to the Medical Sciences Teaching Centre, often alongside my colleagues. After a morning of lectures and/or practicals I would either head to one of the nearby libraries or back to Queen’s either for lunch or further study, typically involving preparation for tutorials later in the term by writing essays. 

My afternoons would often include a tutorial or further lectures, however in cases in which I had neither I would often take some time to unwind and/or socialise by pursuing a non-medicine related interest e.g., going on rowing outings, going for runs through Oxford or exploring events throughout the city. 

After typically having dinner in halls at around 6 o’clock, I would sometimes continue with work if it were necessary to meet a deadline or for revision in Trinity term, however for the most part I would then make use of either Queen’s junior common room (JCR) or college bar, the beer cellar (BC) to catch up with friends at the end of the day. 

Advice for applicants

All in all, remember that while life at college can be intense at times, not only as a result of meeting tutorial deadlines, but also the many social events that occur throughout each term at Queen’s, I find that it’s ultimately possible to balance work and social lives effectively. Because of the tight-knit community of Queen’s I never found myself without someone to talk to or with nothing to do with my free time. 

Introduction

I grew up in Essex where I attended by local comprehensive until the age of 16 (Mayflower High School, Billericay) and completed by A-Levels at a country grammar (King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford). I went on the study preclinical medicine at Downing College, Cambridge, followed by clinical medicine at New College, Oxford. Since then, I have largely stayed in the area and currently work as a Haematology Registrar across the Thames Valley Region.

Teaching

I help to teach the clinical medicine course at Queen’s by providing tutorials to students in their 4th-6th year.

Introduction

I’m Bethan and I am currently a first-year medic at Queen’s. I’m from Ingleton, which is a small village in the Yorkshire Dales, and I went to a state school nearby.

Medicine at Oxford is quite different to many other universities. Being a traditional course means that our first three years are pre-clinical, and so are very focussed on the science underpinning medicine. In the first year, the content is divided into physiology and pharmacology, organisation of the body, biochemistry, and medical genetics. We study these in a variety of ways, including lectures, tutorials, and seminars. Much of our learning is reinforced by practicals. Anatomy is supported by sessions in the demonstration room, where we have access to prosected specimens, and we have histology practicals where we use microscopy to look at the cellular organisation of tissues.

Tutorials are a brilliant opportunity to discuss topics you have learnt/will learn about in lectures in much greater detail with tutors who are knowledgeable about the subjects covered. They’ve definitely been one of my favourite aspects of the course, particularly because the tutors at Queen’s are so friendly and patient. Our organisation of the body tutorials in the first year are run by practicing doctors, which means that we’re able to discuss anatomy, embryology, and endocrinology in a very clinically relevant way. Our tutorials vary in size – for biochemistry and physiology & pharmacology tutorials, we go in pairs, while our organisation of the body tutorials are either in threes or with all six of us together.

Another part of the course that I’ve found very rewarding is the patient/doctor course. This involves us going in pairs to meet patients with diseases we’re learning about at the time (e.g. diabetes or a heart problem) in their homes, where we get to talk to the patient and start practicing history-taking. After each meeting with the patients, we then meet as a group at a local surgery with our GP tutor, and discuss the patients we’ve seen.

College experience

While the workload in Oxford is pretty full-on, there’s still lots of time for doing other things, both in and out of College. I took up rowing this year – while I’m very much lacking in ability, I’ve really enjoyed the social aspect of it, with tug of warpids (the off-water replacement for Torpids, which was cancelled because of the river levels) being a particular highlight. There have also been a number of Medic bar crawls and crewdates throughout the year which have been fun ways of getting to know the other students doing the course and making friends outside of College.

My favourite thing about Queen’s is the people – everyone is so friendly – and it is lovely to have the opportunity to get to know people from such a wide range of backgrounds, and with such varied interests. The Beer Cellar is a social hub, where I have spent many a happy evening chatting with friends, as well as attending the ‘bops’ (parties) that take place there. The library at Queen’s is also a wonderful resource: with three floors, each with a distinct atmosphere, there’s a desk for every occasion (mainly frantic essay-writing after a period of procrastination).

One of the aspects of life at Queen’s that I have found most reassuring is the College family system. Each Fresher is given college parents, who are there to be asked stupid questions, to give advice about your course and student life, and as friendly faces to look out for around College. Evensong in the chapel is another thing I’ve found very relaxing, and you definitely don’t need to be religious to appreciate it. I’m an atheist, but I love listening to the choir singing so beautifully, and it’s the perfect opportunity to take some time out from the busy Oxford life.

It would also be criminal for me to talk about life at Queen’s without discussing Hall. College lunch is the highlight of every day, and is what keeps me going through long mornings of lectures. The roast dinners also deserve a mention – I have been known on several occasions to have one for both Sunday lunch and Sunday dinner, which speaks volumes about how delicious they are.

Course

  • BM BCh Medicine
  • BA Medical Sciences
  • MBiomedSci Biomedical Sciences

Queen’s enjoys a strong tradition in medicine and the biomedical sciences. Lord Florey, the Nobel Laureate who introduced penicillin as an antibiotic, was a Provost of Queen’s, and Sir Edward Abraham, who discovered the cephalosporin class of antibiotics, was a student here, and later became an honorary fellow of the College. The College Medical Society arranges guest speaker events and dinners, providing a lively forum for the discussion of medical and biomedical matters.

In addition to the current tutors listed, Professor Peter Robbins (former Head of the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics) is also a Fellow of the College, as is Professor Simon Leedham (Professor of Molecular and Population Genetics); we are in the process of appointing a further Professorial Fellow in Immunology.

Admissions

Queen’s welcomes applications for the six-year undergraduate Medicine course, for which we have a fixed quota of six places per year, and for the course in Biomedical Sciences, for which we offer up to two additional places. We do not currently accept applications for the accelerated (graduate entry) Medicine course.

The admissions process includes a rigorous, centralised shortlisting procedure, based in part on the biomedical admissions test (BMAT); shortlisted candidates are distributed between colleges in proportion to the number of places available and are each interviewed at two colleges. One of these will be the college of first choice (if a college was specified by the applicant) and the other will be assigned essentially at random. Offers are made after careful consideration of all aspects of the application except college preference. As a consequence, it is quite common for an applicant to be offered a place at a college that was not their first choice.

The courses

The three pre-clinical years of the Medicine course include the first two parts of the Bachelor of Medicine degree, which are examined at the end of the third term and the beginning of the sixth, respectively. Medical students then complete a BA degree in Medical Sciences, from the sixth term until mid-way through the ninth (the ‘Final Honours School’). The objective of the BA course is for the student to develop a critical understanding of research work in specialist areas of their own choosing. After the BA exams, a three-week course in Principles of Clinical Anatomy provides a useful bridge to the three clinical years.

Pre-clinical students remain in Oxford for the three years of clinical training (based at the John Radcliffe Hospital) provided they have completed the pre-clinical course, though they may change college at this stage if they so wish.

The Biomedical Sciences course provides a broad foundation in the first year, with courses covering cells, molecules, genes, brain, body, behaviour, mathematics and statistics. In the second year, students choose from a wide variety of options, covering aspects of psychology, neuroscience, physiology, genetics, developmental biology, pharmacology, cellular pathology and immunology. Students can choose to graduate after three years with a BA degree, which depending on the options chosen in the second and third years is either in Cell and Systems Biology, or in Neuroscience. The research-intensive fourth year leads to the award of a Master’s degree (MBiomedSci).

Teaching

At Queen’s, undergraduates have two or three tutorials per week during the courses for the first BM (medical students) and Part I exam (Biomedical Sciences students). The tutorial teaching provided by the College covers a wide range of disciplines. During the Final Honour School courses, undergraduates often have tutorials outside the College with specialist tutors who are in many cases leaders in their respective fields of biomedical research. Lectures and practical classes operate in parallel with the tutorials and are organised at the University level through the Medical Sciences Teaching Centre on South Parks Road.

During the clinical course students receive both tutorial and bedside teaching from the Clinical Tutors and Lecturers and from other clinicians with relevant expertise. This teaching runs in parallel with the extensive teaching programme provided by the clinical school.

Interviews

Shortlisted candidates are interviewed at two colleges, usually within a 24-hour period in early December. While the precise format varies, each interview will normally involve two or more interviewers and will address a published set of criteria (see Medicine selection criteria and Biomedical Sciences selection criteria). We consider tutorial teaching to be an essential part of the learning experience at Oxford, so during the interview we often aim to recreate the feel of one of these small-group teaching sessions. Ability to engage in a discussion of medical or scientific issues, to appreciate different points of view and to process new information effectively will be more highly valued than simple factual knowledge at this stage of the selection process.


Introduction

I obtained my BSc in biological and earth sciences at the Université Saint Joseph in Beirut in 2006. Following a brief spell at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, I completed my MSc in applied physiology at the University of Oxford followed by an MPhil in bioenergetics at the University of Cambridge. In 2009, I was awarded a Clarendon scholarship to pursue my DPhil studies in clinical neurology at the University of Oxford. Since 2014, I have held various postdoctoral appointments at Bristol and Oxford. I joined Queen’s in 2017 as lecturer of neuroscience.

Teaching

I have formal pedagogic training (PGCert) and I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). I teach the neuroscience syllabus to second-year undergraduates reading medicine and first-year undergraduates reading biomedical science. I also provide tutorials for visiting students in research design and analysis, statistics, comparative physiology, and neurobiology. I supervise FHS medical students who take an interest in submitting extended essays on microglia, neuroimmunology, neurodevelopment, neurodevelopmental disorders, and neurodegenerative disease as part of the FHS medical sciences’ examination. 

Research

I am senior research fellow at the Department of Neuropathology based in the Parkinson’s Neuropathology group and a research affiliate of the paediatric neuro-oncology group at the Karolinska Institutet. My research is focused on translational human neuropathology in neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental disease. Importantly, I am interested in how microglia, the brain’s resident macrophages, participate in mechanisms of health, injury, and repair. I use neuroanatomical analyses and computational methods including machine learning and spatial transcriptomics to investigate molecular disease signatures. I collaborate with various groups in the UK and abroad including the Blomgren lab (Karolinska), the Sundström lab (Karolinska), the Holcman lab (Ecole Normale Supérieure), the Long lab (KCL), the Vernon lab (KCL), the Coutinho lab (Coimbra), the Krsnik lab (Zagreb) and the Tremblay lab (Victoria).

Publications

  • Matuleviciute R, Akinluyi ET, Muntslag TAO, Dewing JM, Long KR, Vernon AC, Tremblay ME, Menassa DA. Microglial contribution to the pathology of neurodevelopmental disorders in humans. Acta Neuropathol. 2023 Sep 1. doi: 10.1007/s00401-023-02629-2.
  • Barry-Carroll L, Greulich P, Marshall AR, Riecken K, Fehse B, Askew KE, Li K, Garaschuk O, Menassa DA, Gomez-Nicola D. Microglia colonize the developing brain by clonal expansion of highly proliferative progenitors, following allometric scaling. Cell Rep. 2023 May 30;42(5):112425. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112425. Epub 2023 Apr 25. 
  • Menassa DA, Muntslag TAO, Martin-Estebané M, Barry-Carroll L, Chapman MA, Adorjan I, Tyler T, Turnbull B, Rose-Zerilli MJJ, Nicoll JAR, Krsnik Z, Kostovic I, Gomez-Nicola D. The spatiotemporal dynamics of microglia across the human lifespan. Dev Cell. 2022 Aug 9: S1534-5807(22)00546-9. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2022.07.015. Epub ahead of print.
  • Hu Y, Fryatt GL, Ghorbani M, Obst J, Menassa DA, Martin-Estebane M, Muntslag TAO, Olmos-Alonso A, Guerrero-Carrasco M, Thomas D, Cragg MS, Gomez-Nicola D. Replicative senescence dictates the emergence of disease-associated microglia and contributes to Aβ pathology. Cell Rep. 2021 Jun 8;35(10):109228. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.109228.
  • Gundersen JK, Chakkarapani E, Jary S, Menassa DA, Scull-Brown E, Frymoyer A, Walløe L, Thoresen M. Morphine and fentanyl exposure during therapeutic hypothermia does not impair neurodevelopment. The Lancet EClinicalMedicine. 2021 Jun 5;36:100892. doi: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.100892.
  • Moreira LM, Takawale A, Hulsurkar M, Menassa DA, Antanaviciute A, Lahiri SK, Mehta N, Evans N, Psarros C, Robinson P, Sparrow AJ, Gillis MA, Ashley N, Naud P, Barallobre-Barreiro J, Theofilatos K, Lee A, Norris M, Clarke MV, Russell PK, Casadei B, Bhattacharya S, Zajac JD, Davey RA, Sirois M, Mead A, Simmons A, Mayr M, Sayeed R, Krasopoulos G, Redwood C, Channon KM, Tardif JC, Wehrens XHT, Nattel S, Reilly S. Paracrine signalling by cardiac calcitonin controls atrial fibrogenesis and arrhythmia. Nature. 2020 Nov 4. doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2890-8. Epub ahead of print.
  • Carroll L, Braeutigam S, Dawes JM, Krsnik Z, Kostovic I, Coutinho E, Dewing JM, Horton CA, Gomez-Nicola D, Menassa DA. Autism Spectrum Disorders: Multiple Routes to, and Multiple Consequences of, Abnormal Synaptic Function and Connectivity. Neuroscientist. 2020 May 22:1073858420921378. doi: 10.1177/1073858420921378. Epub ahead of print.
  • Menassa DA, Gomez-Nicola D. Microglial Dynamics During Human Brain Development. Front Immunol. 2018 May 24;9:1014. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2018.01014. eCollection 2018. Review.
  • J Dawes JM, Weir G, Middleton SJ, Patel R, Chisholm K, Pettingill P, Peck LJ, Sheridan J, Shakir A, Jacobson L, Gutierrez-Mecinas M, Galino J, Walcher J, Kuhnemund J, Kuehn H, Sanna M, Lang B, Clark AJ, Themistocleous A, Iwagaki N, West SJ, Werynksa K, Carroll L, Trendafilova T, Menassa DA, Giannoccaro MP, Coutinho E, Cervellini I, Tewari D, Buckley C, Leite M, Wildner H, Zeilhofer HU, Peles E, Todd AJ, McMahon SB, Dickenson LH, Lewin G, Vincent A, Bennett DLH (2018). Immune or genetic mediated disruption of CASPR2 causes pain hypersensitivity due to enhanced primary afferent excitability. Neuron, e1-e10. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2018.01.033.
  • Menassa DA, Braeutigam S, Bailey A, Falter-Wagner CM. Frontal evoked γ-activity modulates behavioural performance in Autism Spectrum Disorders in a perceptual simultaneity task. Neurosci Lett. 2018 Feb 5; 665:86-91. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2017.11.045. Epub 2017 Nov 27.
  • Coutinho E, Menassa DA, Jacobson L, West S, Domingos J, Moloney T, Pedersen MG, Benros, ME, Lang B, Bennett DLH, Harrison PJ, Mortensen PB, Nørgaard-Pedersen B, Bannerman D, Vincent A (2017). Maternal CASPR2 antibodies and neurodevelopmental disorders in the offspring: epidemiological findings and an animal model. The Lancet, 389(S1), S18. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(17)30414-2.

Introduction

Rajat read Medicine at Oxford University and spent parts of his training on scholarships at Harvard University and the Mayo Clinic, USA. He graduated with several prizes including the Bristol Myers Squibb Prize in Cardiology and the Radcliffe Infirmary Prize in Surgery. After completing basic surgical training and becoming a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, he pursued a career in Radiology and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists.  He completed a Musculoskeletal Radiology Fellowship at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London and an Honorary Fellowship at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Oxford before being appointed Consultant at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, based at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre and John Radcliffe Hospital.

Rajat has specialist expertise in all areas of diagnostic imaging and image-guided treatments relating to orthopaedics, spine, sports, rheumatology, sarcoma, bone infection, and trauma.  Rajat has a particular interest in sporting injuries and works collaboratively with celebrated opinion-leading clinicians to deliver first-class bespoke care to all his patients, including elite athletes, professional footballers, cricketers, tennis players, and high-profile individuals. Rajat has been awarded clinical excellence awards by Oxford University Hospitals in successive years for his clinical excellence and care.

Teaching

Rajat is Lecturer in Medicine and is Director of the Anatomy program at Queen’s. He also regularly sits on the undergraduate interview admissions panel for Medicine. Rajat is Radiology Lead for the postgraduate MSc. in Musculoskeletal Sciences at Oxford University. He is an Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer and supervises MSc. students on the course. In addition, he supervises and trains postgraduate doctors on the Oxford Radiology Training Programme and pre-consultant fellows in musculoskeletal radiology.

Research

Rajat has previously been awarded research scholarships by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence and the Radiological Society of North America.   He is Expert Advisor to the NICE Guidelines Committee for Osteoarthritis and was appointed to the Professional Support and Standards Board at The Royal College of Radiologists.  Rajat was awarded Lifetime Fellowship of the British Institute of Radiology and was selected to the represent the UK on the World Health Organisation Classification of Tumours Radiology Advisory Board. Rajat has published multiple papers in peer-reviewed journals and is an invited lecturer at international conferences. He is author of several books including Radiology at a Glance and has contributed to the 4th edition of Gray’s Anatomy for Students. He was subsequently appointed to Advisory Editor of the journal, Clinical Radiology.

Rajat’s research interest is focussed on imaging and tissue pathology for soft tissue joint disease. He is the Principal Investigator in the FREECAP Study (Understanding Inflammatory Fibrosis in Early Adhesive Capsulitis) at the University of Oxford (https://www.ndorms.ox.ac.uk/research/research-groups/soft-tissue-joint-disease-dakin-group/clinical-studies/freecap).


Introduction

I spent the first 15 years of my life in the coastal city of Dar es salaam in Tanzania, followed by a few years in Oman. I moved to the UK to pursue my higher education in 2011. I hold a BSc in Biomedical Sciences with Honours from the University of Kent (2011-2014). I then moved to London to pursue an MSc in Biomedical Sciences at University College London (2014-2015). My interest in ion channel physiology and pharmacology led to a PhD in Pharmacology at UCL (2016-2020). I am now a postdoctoral Fellow on a BBSRC link award between the laboratories of Professor Paolo Tammaro and Fran Platt in the Department of Pharmacology and Autifony Therapeutics.

Teaching

During my doctorate at UCL I held teaching assistant and co-supervisory roles in pharmacology, biochemistry and diseases of ageing modules. I was recognised as an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2019.

Research

My research interests are in ion channel physiology and pharmacology, with particular interest in a novel group of chloride ion channels known as TMEM16A. Unlike other channels, TMEM16A is highly sensitive to its lipid environment, including signalling lipids. Furthermore, their ubiquitous expression in the vasculature poses severe implications for vascular disease (including Niemann-Pick Disease, type C1-disease). Thus, my research aims to elucidate the extent of lipid sensitivity of this channel by lipids and exploit this knowledge to develop lipid-like small molecules with therapeutic potential.


Introduction

I graduated from the University of Genoa, Italy, with a laurea in Biological Sciences (1999). I then specialised in biophysics at the National Research Council in Genoa and went on to earn a PhD in Pharmacology at the University of Bath (2004). I held a post-doctoral fellowship in physiology at Oxford (2004-2008), under the mentorship of Professor Frances Ashcroft, while I was also a Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College. In 2008, I was appointed as a Research Council (RCUK) Fellow to set up an independent lab at the University of Manchester. I returned to Oxford in 2012 as an Associate Professor in Pharmacology and a Fellow at Queen’s.

Teaching

I teach undergraduate students at all stages of preclinical medicine and biomedical sciences. My teaching focuses especially on systems and molecular physiology, pharmacology and biophysics. I also teach as part of the MSc course in pharmacology, and I typically supervise three DPhil students in my lab.

Research

The focus of my research is on vascular ion channels, proteins that form microscopic gated pores and thus allow ions to move into and out of cells. In so doing, ion channels give rise to electrical impulses that trigger and control a vast array of fundamental biological processes. Specifically, the cells forming the wall of arteries possess channels that generate signals determining the artery diameter; this ultimately contributes to the control of blood pressure. We aim to understand the way these channels open and close and how alterations in these important proteins may lead to human disease. We also work to identify new ion channel-interacting drugs, which could modulate blood vessel function for therapeutic benefit. To achieve these aims the lab takes a multidisciplinary approach involving studies at the level of molecules, cells, tissues and the whole organism, using a combination of experimental and theoretical methodologies.

Publications

For a full list of publications, please visit https://pharm.ox.ac.uk/team/paolo-tammaro.


Introduction

I was educated at a state school in Norfolk. I studied medicine at Oxford and I undertook my doctoral studies in Physiology by taking three years out in the middle of the medical course – a practice that was more common then than it is now. After qualifying in medicine, I undertook hospital jobs for a period of time in Gloucester and Oxford before taking up my Fellowship at Queen’s.

Teaching

I have taught physiology, with a particular focus on integrative, human and medical physiology, for over 30 years. Although I no longer tutor, I continue to both lecture and examine, and I particularly enjoy giving the first year lecture course on respiratory physiology.

Research

My research interests have focussed around oxygen – not just the way it is used in metabolism, but also the way in which it affects so many of our biological functions, including respiratory, cardiovascular, and metabolic control. Most recently, I have become interested in whether it is possible to characterise clinically useful features of an individual’s physiology using highly precise measures of gas exchange. The idea is that the measurements could be used to direct therapy in relation to a number of respiratory diseases, just as blood pressure measurements are currently used to prescribe antihypertensive drugs. I currently co-direct the Respiratory Theme of the Oxford Biomedical Research Centre with Prof Ian Pavord. My personal research is currently supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and by GSK.

Publications

For a full list of publications, see my Google Scholar page.

Selected publications

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/.

Introduction

I went to school in Coventry, and then studied Biochemistry at Oxford before completing a PhD at Imperial College while carrying out research at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (now Cancer Research UK) laboratories in London. I then worked as a postdoctoral fellow with Professor Sir Paul Nurse for six years, before setting up my own research group at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine back in Oxford. In 2002 I moved my group to the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology and took up a Tutorial Fellowship at Queen’s, where I have previously served as Tutor for Admissions and Senior Tutor.

Teaching

I teach a variety of aspects of cell and molecular biology, biochemistry, medical genetics and general pathology to students of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in their first two years. I also organise and teach on the FHS (third year) option in Cancer, as well as supervising research students in my laboratory at the Dunn School.

Research

My doctoral research was in tumour virus genetics, and I have been working on various aspects of the cell and molecular biology of cancer ever since. My research group, based since 2011 in the Oxford Molecular Pathology Institute at the Dunn School, is currently investigating ways in which dysregulation of cyclin-dependent protein kinases contributes to tumour development.

Publications

  • Pluta AJ, Studniarek C, Murphy S, Norbury CJ. 2023. Cyclin-dependent kinases: masters of the eukaryotic universe. Wiley Interdiscip Rev RNA. e1816. doi: 10.1002/wrna.1816.
  • Norbury CJ. 2023. Koller and the dawn of cancer cytogenetics. Br J Cancer. 128:402-403. doi: 10.1038/s41416-022-01996-z.
  • Norbury CJ. 2013. Cytoplasmic RNA: a case of the tail wagging the dog. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 14:643-53. doi: 10.1038/nrm3645.
  • Yates LA, Norbury CJ, Gilbert RJ. 2013. The long and short of microRNA. Cell. 153:516-9. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2013.04.003.

Full list of publications.

Introduction

I went to Southgate Comprehensive school in North London before studying medicine at St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical School, where I also intercalated a BSc in Pharmacology. I then undertook junior doctor training in the UK, Australia and New Zealand before commencing a PhD supervised by Sir Nick Wright at the London Research Institute. This changed my career trajectory towards academia and I moved to Oxford in 2010 to take up a Clinician Scientist fellowship at the Wellcome Centre Human Genetics with Professor Ian Tomlinson. Since then, I have undertaken advanced and senior clinician scientist fellowships before taking up my current position with Queen’s.

Teaching

I am a graduate student supervisor and teach medical students on lab placements and within the hospital environment. I am also the Director of the Oxford Centre for Personalised Medicine, which runs 15-20 engagement events throughout the year.

Research

My research interests lie in the regulation of the intestinal stem cell. Stem cells are essential for the development, turnover and repair of the gut and are the targets of carcinogenic mutations in neoplasia. I am interested in the morphogenic signalling pathways that control the intestinal stem cell and how these pathways can be manipulated by drugs in diseases like inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer.

Publications

You can find a list of Simon’s publications here.

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