Birmingham Springboard Fellowship awardees announced

The latest recipients of the University of Birmingham’s College of Medicine and Health’s pump-priming Springboard Fellowships have been announced.

The Birmingham Springboard Fellowship is an open and competitive scheme which supports early career researchers in developing their independent research programmes, including assistance in preparing proposals for prestigious awards.

Dr Dhawal Choudhary, Dr Cassie Bakshani and Dr Laura Quinn have been announced as this year's successful awardees of the Birmingham Springboard Fellowships.

Dr Bakshani's research focusses on the dynamic interplay between host and microbe at mucosal interfaces. Specifically, she is investigating how host glycans drive pathogen adaptation by characterising the understudied enzymes that are important mucosal virulence factors for many bacterial pathogens. To explore this, she employs an interdisciplinary approach that combines experimental microbiology, functional biochemistry, glycoproteomics and structural biology.

Dr Cassie Bakshani said: "This opportunity will allow me to expand upon my current findings, forge new collaborations with world-leading researchers at Birmingham, and enhance my skills repertoire. I am excited to remain within the College of Medicine and Health and continue contributing to the University of Birmingham's momentum."

Dr Dhawal Choudhary is a biophysicist interested in understanding how ubiquitin signalling regulates key cellular processes. His research integrates single-molecule biophysics, biochemistry and molecular biology to uncover the mechanisms that regulate protein quality control. In his recent work, he developed a novel single-molecule approach to directly observe how critical molecular machines recognise and process ubiquitin chains, providing new insights into how these chains are interpreted within cells.

The award provides Dr Choudhary with the time and support to secure future external funding alongside the opportunity to develop new research themes at the University, centred around the recently established state-of-the-art LUMICKS C-Trap facility.

Dr Choudhary said: "Looking ahead, I aim to develop a Single-Molecule Hub at the University of Birmingham, build a research team around it, and complement the University's strengths in structural biology and medical sciences with cutting-edge single-molecule biophysics." 

Dr Laura Quinn is a medical statistician with a focus on diagnostic test evaluation in imaging and evaluating healthcare performance over time. She will use her fellowship to develop methods for evaluating and monitoring AI in diagnostic imaging.

AI is increasingly being deployed across the NHS, but ensuring these systems continue to perform safely and effectively after deployment remains a major challenge. Unlike traditional diagnostic studies, the true diagnosis is not always available once AI systems are deployed in routine practice, making it difficult to assess whether AI performance is changing over time. Dr Quinn's research aims to develop statistical methods to address this challenge.

Dr Choudhary has already begun his Springboard Fellowship, Dr Bakshani and Dr Quinn will begin theirs in March 2027.