About NHC

Meet
the TEAM

Meet our team at the National Horizons Centre who come from a wide range of research and industry backgrounds.

Recognised as internationally excellent* our current research teams support basic and applied research across disciplinary boundaries, with a particular focus on disease-specific research, biomanufacturing and biotechnology and digital analytics and machine learning.

NHC Team

Professor Vikki Rand

Professor Vikki Rand

Director of National Horizons Centre and Professor of Biosciences

Vikki is responsible for leading the NHC's development as a centre of excellence for the biosciences and healthcare sectors, working in partnership with industry, the NHS and other stakeholders to ensure that provision is driven by current and planned needs for research, innovation, skills and talent.

Professor John Young

Professor John Young

Professor of Translational Healthcare

John is tackling prevalent and impactful diseases of the urinary tract - creating new devices that enable early diagnosis, discovering new drug targets and developing educational resources for patients, carers and healthcare professionals. Outside of urology, he is involved in biomarker discovery, development, evaluation and implementation projects with healthcare, biotech and pharmaceutical sectors.

Professor Linda Popplewell

Professor Linda Popplewell

Professor of Genetic Medicine

Linda's research focuses on the pre-clinical development of gene therapies for rare diseases, in particular those affecting the neuromuscular system, including the muscular dystrophies and the childhood cancer neurofibromatosis type 1. The technologies being used include vector-mediated gene addition, endonuclease-mediated gene editing, antisense oligonucleotide (AO)-induced exon skipping and gene silencing.

 Steve  Bagshaw, CBE

Steve Bagshaw, CBE

Chief Industry Advisor

As Chief Industry Advisor, Steve helps the National Horizons Centre keep abreast of latest developments in the life sciences field, ensuring its training and research meet the needs of business. Steve is the Manufacturing Lead on the UK Vaccines Taskforce and a former chief executive of FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies. In January 2021, he was made a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in recognition of his services to the UK Manufacturing and Biotechnology Sector.

 Daniel Shenton

Daniel Shenton

Head of Continuing Professional Development

After completing his BSc Applied Biology at Northumbria University, Daniel worked for 9 years in FUJIFILM Diosynth Technologies in Billingham. Daniel starting as a Production Technologist in Microbial DSP before creating a training and improvements role in mammalian cell culture working with both upstream and downstream single-use technologies. Before joining the NHC, Daniel had progressed into a Lead Production Technologist management role in mammalian cell culture, managing both people and plant.

 Connor Foster

Connor Foster

Senior Bioprocessing Trainer and Training Coordinator

After completing a BSc at Newcastle University, Connor has worked in a variety of roles including a QC/veterinary lab technician in the highlands of Scotland and as a cell production technologist at FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies in Billingham. Working in the MCC facility, Connor performed a variety of upstream and downstream activities to produce active proteins for use in therapeutics.

 Japhet Juanillo

Japhet Juanillo

Bioprocessing Training Officer

Japhet completed his BSc in Biomedical Sciences at Northumbria University before joining the Mammalian Cell Culture team at FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies in Billingham. As part of his role, Japhet was heavily involved in all activities associated with mammalian culture – from cell line recovery and revival to protein purification and final fill of bulk drug substances. Prior to joining the NHC, Japhet specialised in downstream processing as a Senior Production Technologist.

 Elizabeth Frank

Elizabeth Frank

Bioprocessing Training Officer

After completing a BSc in Biology at Northumbria University, Elizabeth worked in drug development before joining FUJIFILM Diosynth in Billingham as a Production Technologist. As part of this role, Elizabeth worked in the Mammalian Cell Culture facility, where she played a pivotal role in executing a range of upstream and downstream activities to produce active biopharmaceuticals.

 Dann Cooley

Dann Cooley

Operations and Facilities Manager

Dann is responsible for the day-to-day running of the NHC, ensuring it's smooth operation. Dann is from a technical, person and facilities management background with a focus on practical skills development and innovation in the sporting environment.

Dr Alex Newman

Dr Alex Newman

Scientific Experimental Officer in Genomics

Alex's research focuses on the application of state-of-the-art technology and integrated multi-omics data analysis to understand cancer relapse in order to identify prognostic biomarkers.

Dr  Peixun Zhou

Dr Peixun Zhou

Scientific Experimental Officer in Cell & Molecular Biology

Peixun's research interests include next-generation sequencing analysis of aggressive cancers and the application of cutting-edge lab techniques (such as CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing) to understand the biology of cancer and response to therapy.

Dr Claire Jennings

Dr Claire Jennings

Scientific Experimental Officer in Mass Spectrometry

Claire uses proteomic methods to address key questions across bioprocessing, biopharmaceuticals, biotechnology and healthcare. Claire's research interests are focused on detection, characterisation and quantitation of analytes for drug discovery, clinical and structural proteomics.

Dr Nicole Darling

Dr Nicole Darling

Scientific Experimental Officer in Biomedicine

Nicole has expertise across biomedicine and experience of working in and with industry and academia. Her research interests are in in vitro modelling of healthy and diseased human tissues to reduce the use of animals in research. Specific areas of expertise includes 3D cell culture and in vitro assay optimisation, as well as histological and molecular biology-based analysis.

Alumni

Dr Katy Chamberlain

Katy is an igneous petrologist and volcanologist specialising in the interpretation of pre-eruptive magmatic evolution using geochemical analyses of erupted products. She has worked all over the world, studying super-eruptive processes in the Bishop Tuff, ocean island volcanism at Ascension Island, and subduction zones processes in the Southern Volcano Zone of Chile.

Dr Amber Collings

Amber’s background is a mix of forensic biology and anthropology, comparative functional anatomy and evolution, virtual anthropology, and biomechanics.

Dr Priyanka Dey

Priyanka's research focusses on ways to further the potential of nano-gold bio-imaging agents and Raman spectroscopy for clincially-relevant cancer diagnosis.

Dr Nick Duggett

Nick's research focusses on antimicrobial resistance, whole gneome sequencing of microbes and investigating detection of human pathogens in livestock.

Dr Pei San (Sharel) E

Peisan's research focuses on areas of nanoscale/microscale electrochemistry, development of electrochemical sensor and electrochemical energy storage.

Mahmudal Hassan

Mahmudal's research focusses on the development of new approaches in bioprocessing training andn processes using virtual reality.

Dr Rochelle Hockney

Rochelle's research focusses on women's health, neonates and the microbiome.

Dr Graeme Horsman

Graeme's research focusses on digital and computer forensics and application of emerging technologies.

Javeria Mehboob

Javeria studied at the NHC and has interests in mass spectrometry. She moved onto an IBioIC FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies BBSRC CTP funded PhD at the University of York co-supervised with Teesside University.

Dr Fatemeh Moheimani

Fatemeh's research interests are to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying Respiratory diseases (e.g. asthma), with the goal to provide novel and more effective interventions.

Dr Jackie Mosely

Jackie applies mass spectrometry to small molecule characterisation, identification of novel chemical protein modifications, lipid analyses and synthetic polymer analysis.

Birbal Prasad

Birbal completed his Marie Curie funded PhD in biomarker discovery for gliomas using bioinformatics and statistical learning approaches at the NHC. Birbal moved onto a postdoctoral post at the University of Oxford.

Nanda Puspita

Nanda's research focusses on testing methods of making mycoprotein, the main ingredient in all Quorn products, that would lead to an even more sustainable production methodology and enhancements to product quality.

Dr Edward Rollason

Ed's research interests focus on the nature of catchments and their communities as connected socio-ecological systems, and how we can develop and promote integrated approaches to management that embed resilience into everyday management activities.

Dr Chibuzo Uzoigwe

Chibuzo's reseach focusses on the application of mass spectrometry to analyse different samples, such as assessing acrylamide levels in food.

Sharon Robertson

Before joining the NHC Sharon worked as a science secondary school teacher, specialising in biology. Prior to this, she worked for 20 years at Sartorius Stedim Biotechnology.

Jo Fisher

Jo was responsible for providing operational support to the NHC and played a central role in liaising with external business partners, coordinating events and finance.

Our Researchers

Dr Ojodomo Achadu

Disease specific research

Ojodomo’ s research primarily focuses on the development of disease diagnostic and clinical application of nanobiosensors for infectious pathogens and neurodegenerative diseases, with a specialization in nanotechnology-driven Raman and fluorescence spectroscopy techniques, and nanomaterials/materials chemistry and engineering.

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Dr Safwan Akram

Biomanufacturing and Biotechnology

Safwan is responsible for the NHC's enterprise and business engagement activities, linking academics with external organisations. Safwan's current research is working towards the development of low-cost diagnostics for point of care, working in collaboration with local pharmaceutical companies to bring down the cost of biopharmaceuticals.

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Dr Kamar Ameen-Ali

Disease specific research

Kam is interested in understanding how neuroinflammation can be a driver for the progression of neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer's, which lead to dementia.

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Professor Claudio Angione

Disease specific research
Biomanufacturing and Biotechnology

Claudio is a professor In computer science and has research interests in using machine learning to model data including genome-scale metaboloc modelling in diseases and pathogens.

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Dr Ambroise Baker

Sustainable Planet

Ambroise’s research focuses on how plants, biodiversity and complex ecosystems respond to environmental change. Answering this question is critical to developing evidence-based policies to protect the environment and human well-being in the context of global change.

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Dr Lisa Baldini

Sustainable Planet

Lisa's research interests span palaeoclimate reconstruction using biogenic and inorganic carbonates, modern stable isotope systematics in meteoric precipitation and groundwater, and using geochemical fingerprinting to trace human impacts on the environment.

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Dr Jamie Bojko

Sustainable Planet

Jamie’s research involves screening for and systematically identifying the symbionts of animal hosts (primarily Crustacea and Mollusca). With a focus on Microsporidia, bacteria and viruses. Jamie uses histological, electron microscopy, molecular diagnostic, and metagenomic methods to better understand the microbiomes of invertebrate hosts. These data are used to develop disease ecology models to understand how diseases transmit and impact host activity and behaviour.

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Dr Helen Carney

Sustainable Planet

Helen’s research spans environmental microbiology and industrial biotechnology and aims to detect and isolate bacterial strains with unique and beneficial properties that can be used in waste treatment and manufacturing. Helen has particular interest in the isolation and detection of Acidithiobacillus and other iron oxidising bacteria that contribute to acid mine drainage arising from both anthropogenic and natural processes.

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Professor Stephen Cummings

Disease specific research

Steve's research studies how complex microbial communities are implicated in a number of diseases, so called polymicrobial infections.

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Dr Mohammad Dadashipour

Disease specific research
Biomanufacturing and Biotechnology

Mohammad is an expert in biotechnology with research interests in enzyme and protein biotechnology, enzyme and protein discovery and engineering for biotechnology, medical and pharmaceutical applications.

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Dr Desire Dalton

Sustainable Planet

Desire has a background in human and animal genetics as well as forensics. Her research focuses on conducting multidisciplinary research to determine the genetic integrity of populations and she has contributed to the genetic management of wildlife species and populations in Africa.

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Dr Paul Dean

Disease specific research

Paul's research centres around the mechanisms of pathogen evolution, how they infect us and how our cells respond to them. He has extensive experience with medically-important bacterial and fungal pathogens – such as E.coli, Microsporidia and Salmonella​

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Dr Maria Dimopoulou

Sustainable Planet

Maria’s research addresses food wastes and food sustainability with a focus on biopolymers including the relationship between their structure and physicochemical properties as well as their functionality and innovative applications.

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Dr Adrian Dye

Sustainable Planet

Adrian is a lecturer and researcher who is particularly interested in glacial and periglacial environments, remote sensing and GIS. He is a keen environmentalist and promotes sustainability wherever possible.

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Dr Godwin Ebiloma

Biomanufacturing and Biotechnology

Godwin's research focuses on identifying parasite-specific molecular targets for drug and vaccine development against neglected tropical diseases.

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Dr Andrew English

Disease specific research

Andy's research is focused on the discovery and validation of protein biomarkers which could improve the management of acute and chronic kidney disease patients.

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Dr Chris Ennis

Biomanufacturing and Biotechnology
Sustainable Planet

Chris' research interests are in sustainable technology, especially related to carbon mitigation, utilisation of biochar and environmental protection.

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Dr Amin Farshchi

Biomanufacturing and Biotechnology

Amin is a lecturer in food science and technology, with research interests including food processing, food structure, emulsions and complex formulated products.

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Dr Hong Gao

Disease specific research

Hong's research focusses on synthetic biology, natural products and bioproduction optimisation.

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Dr Nur Haliza Hassan

Sustainable Planet

Nur Haliza has exprtise and experience covering various aspects of laboratory examination and analysis in forensic biology and DNA profiling on biological samples.

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Dr Jibin He

Sustainable Planet

Jibin’s research is focused on developing a more sustainable and environmentally responsible human food chain. The current food production system feeding our society stems from the Industrial Revolution with undeniable negative environmental impacts. Jibin’s current research primarily addresses the dependence of the current food system on dairy products and microplastics to seek out alternative solutions.

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Dr Jens Holtvoeth

Sustainable Planet

Jens is a geoscientist, specialising in (paleo)environmental research, biogeochemistry and geobiology, with experience in environmental geoscience.

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Dr Ruzaina Binti Ishak

Biomanufacturing and Biotechnology

Dr Ruzaina's research interests and specialisation are mainly in food ingredients, including: formulation, processing, packaging, emulsion, fats and oil and manufacturing products.

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Professor Meez Islam

Biomanufacturing and Biotechnology

Meez's research focusses on the development and application of novel optical spectroscopy based techniques, in particular liquid-phase broadband cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopy (BBCEAS) and hyperspectral imaging in a forensic context.​

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Dr Md Nazmul Islam

Biomanufacturing and Biotechnology

Nazmul's research mainly focuses on developing novel biosensor based platforms for personalised diagnostics of diseases.

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Gemma Jeffries

Biomanufacturing and Biotechnology

Gemma’s current research focuses on investigating the industrial production of active inclusion body proteins in E. coli. Gemma uses high throughput technologies, such as the Ambr® 250 automated bioreactor system and cutting-edge RNA-seq to better understand the control and molecular architecture of inclusion body formation.

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Dr Maria Angeles Juanes Ortiz

Disease specific research

Maria's main research interests are to understand how cytoskeleton networks coordinate cell migration and division and how their dysfunction leads to human diseases. Her goal is to discover novel biomarkers for early diagnosis and identify new molecules to personalise therapies for diseases including Cancer.

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Dr Kalesh Karunakaran

Biomanufacturing and Biotechnology

Kalesh’s research uses synthetic organic chemistry to generate functional tools that facilitate understanding of living systems. Specifically, in the area of chemical proteomics, his research develops and apply small molecule chemical probes to understand the functions of proteins.

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Dr Ahmad Khundakar

Disease specific research

Ahmad's research focuses on investigating the molecular and pathological mechanisms behind neurodegenerative illnesses, such as Alzheimer’s, dementia with Lewy bodies and Parkinson's disease, as well as depression.

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Dr Shweta Kuba

Disease specific research

Shweta's research interests include genetic disease modelling with pluripotent stem cells for drug target delivery, musculoskeletal diseases and developmental disorders, Spatio-temporal regulation of RNA- binding proteins in developmental disorders, and association of altered patterns of mRNA decay with ageing.

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Dr Vasileios Panagiotis Lenis

Digital Analytics and Machine Learning

Vasileios' research interests lie in a wide range of fields in biological and biomedical sciences, from comparative genomics and evolutionary studies to neuroscience research and personalised medicine.

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Dr Xinzhong Li

Digital Analytics and Machine Learning

Xinzhong's research interests lies in system biology and bioinformatics, including machine learning and next-generation sequencing.

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Dr Bruno Silvester Lopes

Disease specific research

Bruno's research focuses on antobiotic resistance and the molecular epidemiology of pathogens such as Klebsiella spp and Helicobacter pylori.

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Dr Craig McBeth

Disease specific research

Craig is a lecturer in biomedical sciences and his research interests are in bioelectrical engineering, biochemistry and cellular biology.

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Dr Amy Miller

Sustainable Planet

Amy is a lecturer in biological sciences with research interests in animal science, including alleviation of pain and distress and animal welfare challenges.

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Professor Gary Montague

Biomanufacturing and Biotechnology

Gary's research focusses on the development and application of systems techniques to make a practical difference to the process and bioprocess industrial sectors.

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Dr Alexander Newman

Disease specific research

Alex's research focusses on the application of state-of-the-art technology and integrated multi-omics data analysis to understand cancer relapse in order to identify prognostic biomarkers.

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Dr Annalisa Occhipinti

Disease specific research

Annalisa is senior lecturer in data analytics. Her research interests are computational biology and machine learning applications in cancer research with a specific focus on early detection.

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Dr Caroline Orr

Disease specific research
Sustainable Planet

Caroline’s primary research interests are in analysing the structure of microbial communities, the functional interactions between microbes and their environments, and the impact of environmental change on microbially-driven processes. Caroline applies her expertise in microbiology to diverse systems including agricultural soil, anaerobic digestion, archaeological environments, and human systems.

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Dr Rodney Owusu-Darko

Sustainable Planet

Rodney is particularly interested in multidisciplinary research and sustainable solutions to improve livelihoods. From agrarian science to food science and technology, he has experience and interests in the intersection between food safety and security, health and policy systems.

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Helen Page

Sustainable Planet

Helen's research interests include the recovery of biological evidence from unusual samples including from bathwater and personal cleaning implements.

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Dr Kerry Pettigrew

Disease specific research
Biomanufacturing and Biotechnology

Kerry's research interests are in genetic epidemiology including association testing, genotyping, human disease and traits, using cutting edge approaches for bacterial DNA sequencing (Illumina, Oxford Nanopore, infection control) and quantitative social sciences studying the impact on health and climate and inequalities.

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Dr Panagiota Philippou

Disease specific research

Giota's research focusses include Cancer biomarker discovery for early diagnosis and monitoring, the identification of new targets in Cancer therapeutics and the patient’s response to Cancer therapy.

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Professor Linda Popplewell

Disease specific research
Biomanufacturing and Biotechnology

Linda's research focuses on the pre-clinical development of gene therapies for rare diseases, in particular those affecting the neuromuscular system, including the muscular dystrophies and the childhood cancer neurofibromatosis type 1. The technologies being used include vector-mediated gene addition, endonuclease-mediated gene editing, antisense oligonucleotide (AO)-induced exon skipping and gene silencing.

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Professor Vikki Rand

Disease specific research

Vikki is responsible for leading the NHC's development as a centre of excellence for the biosciences and healthcare sectors, working in partnership with industry, the NHS and other stakeholders to ensure that provision is driven by current and planned needs for research, innovation, skills and talent.

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Dr Sreejith Raveendran

DISEASE SPECIFIC RESEARCH
Biomanufacturing and Biotechnology

Sree is a Nanoscientist, whose primary focus is on the development of novel strategies in combination therapeutics against cancers and studying its toxicology. He uses multimodule targeting patterns using novel vectors and investigates cancer cellular dynamics using various advanced research tools like 3D electron microscopy. His approaches are truly interdisciplinary in addressing cancer therapy and diagnosis.

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Cassy Ross

Disease specific research

Cassy's research focuses on understanding the human gut microbiome in health and disease, particularly in preterm infants using cutting edge technologies such as next generation sequencing.

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Dr Mosharraf Sarker

Disease specific research

Mosharraf is a human biologist whose research interests lie in the understanding of mammalian cell signalling mechanism to inflammation and oxidative stress.

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Dr Tora Smulders-Srinivasan

Disease specific research

Tora's current research is exploring the possible roles of mitochondrial defects in Parkinson’s disease, using Drosophila (fruit fly) models.

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Dr Gillian Taylor

Biomanufacturing and Biotechnology
Sustainable Planet

Gillian is responsible for the day-to-day running of the NHC, ensuring its smooth operation. Gillian's own research has a focus on the development of analytical techniques, specifically mass spectrometry towards forensic and archaeological applications.

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Professor Tim Thompson

Digital Analytics and Machine Learning

Tim's main areas of research focus on the human body and how it changes, particularly in the modern context.

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Dr Helen Tidy

Sustainable Planet

Helen’s research mainly focusses on the use of fibres as a forensic evidence type, looking at aspects such as how the transfer and retention of fibres or the photodegradation of them affects the evidential interpretation for the court of law. She also researches other areas within the forensic field as well as Learning and Teaching techniques.

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Dr Rhys Williams

Digital Analytics and Machine Learning

Rhys's research focusses on imaging in archaeology, including digitalising Vindolanda.

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Dr David Wright

Sustainable Planet

David's research interests are in microbiology, specifically, relating to how an ecological perspective can be used to inform both medically and environmentally focused research projects

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POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS

Bello Abubakar

Biomanufacturing and Biotechnology

Genetic modification of pseudomonas putida (XylM, xylS and xylR) genes for effective bioremediation of oil spill

Kent Adamson

Digital Analytics and Machine Learning

Degraded and degrading: Understanding diagenetic processes in commingled graves from contexts of mass violence

Ahmad Alkawi

Biomanufacturing and Biotechnology

The development of mass spectrometry based diagnosis

Amy Burgess

Sustainable Planet

Tracking a demon virus: Exploring viral evolution along the invasion route of the demon shrimp, dikerogammarus haemobaphes

Lucy Butler

Biomanufacturing and Biotechnology

Production and characterisation of normal compounds for use in haemostasis testing

Popi Chrysostomou

Digital Analytics and Machine Learning

Morphoscopic and morphometric methodological approaches for segregating commingled human remains

Libby Clements

Disease specific research

Impact of NICU treatment on health outcomes for preterm infants

Nathan Coles

Disease specific research

Understanding the pathology underpinning dementia through the examination of phosphorylation patterns

Matthew Crowther

Digital Analytics and Machine Learning

Non-contact light and hyperspectral scanning of biological and chemical samples for forensic analysis

Priscilla Ferreira Ulguim

Digital Analytics and Machine Learning

The fire, the body and the people: The funerary practice of cremation in the southern Brazilian Highlands

Dom Gilchrist

Disease specific research

Characterisation and identification of human pathogen and parasite transporter proteins

Hrafnhildur Halldorsdottir

Biomanufacturing and Biotechnology

Multidisciplinary approaches to the investigation of preservation processes at the Roman Site of Vindolanda, Northumberland, UK

Md Islam

Disease specific research

Health policy and hospital wastage management: Perspective of Bangladesh

Anthony Jackson

Digital Analytics and Machine Learning

Vehicle telematics data: The forensic implications of legally obtaining data from vehicles and the applicable procedures for doing so

Maria O'Hanlon

Disease specific research

The roles of mitochondrial proteins in Parkinson's disease

David Oluwadare

Biomanufacturing and Biotechnology

Evaluation of uptake and utilization of soil available zinc in spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) from seaweed fertilizer application: Employment of isotopic technique

Agatha Quesnel

Disease specific research

Deciphering the potential interplay between matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and the mucin 4 (MUC 4) in glioblastoma molecular mechanisms and diagnostics

Janice Rafraf

Digital Analytics and Machine Learning

Regulation of illegal imagery

Chris Robinson

Biomanufacturing and Biotechnology

The development of phosphine/phosphine oxide redox-based organocatalyst

Nafeesa Shahdab

Disease specific research

Novel approaches to target airway epithelium remodelling in asthmatics

Anirudh Sharma

Biomanufacturing and Biotechnology

Applications of shape selective mass spectrometry

Rebecca Strong

Digital Analytics and Machine Learning

Application of geometric morphometric analysis to the identification process of unknown individuals

Muta Tah Hira

Disease specific research

An integrated experimental modelling and machine learning framework for poly-omic characterisation of ovarian cancer

Aboli Valve

Biomanufacturing and Biotechnology

A study on transfer and persistence of textiles in the archaeological environment

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