Meet the Human Biomaterials Resource Centre Team
Leadership Team
Professor Christopher McCabe Designated Individual and Academic Theme Lead
Chris is the designated Individual on the HTA licence, and Academic Theme Lead and responsible for all activity performed under HTA Licence 12358. Chris liaises with the Human Tissue Authority, College management, and researchers, providing context to the HBRC's role within the College's larger mission and the University's strategic direction.
Dr Gareth Bicknell - General Manager
Gareth is the General Manager and responsible for ensuring the generic protocol’s ongoing approval, oversight of appropriate project set-up and management, resource management, financial management, and compliance of the HBRC with the applicable standards and regulations. Gareth liaises with patients, public, researches, College and NHS management, while developing the HBRC’s services in line with the University’s strategies. Gareth is chair of the HBRC Access Review Panel (which grants specific project approvals under the generic protocol), providing experienced ethical and legal advice concerning the procurement, storage and use of human material.
Senior Management Team
Gulshanara Ahmed - Tissue Services Manager
Shan is primarily responsible for managing the effective and efficient delivery of the services offered by the HBRC, with a particular emphasis on tissue-based processing services. Shan supervises the provision of human materials to researchers, the running of histology services, and the maintenance of a safe and reliable hosting service for small trial collections. She serves as the main deputy for the General Manager.
Brenda George - Quality / Operations Manager
Brenda is responsible for internal monitoring of the HBRC’s ability to meet quality, audit, and regulatory requirements. Brenda regularly checks and analyses key metrics within the HBRC’s Quality Management System for reporting upwards to HBRC leadership. In collaboration with the Tissue Services Manager, Brenda is also responsible for managing the effective and efficient delivery of services offered by the HBRC, and she is the contingency deputy for the General Manager.
Service Coordination Team
Emma Hurlestone and Shalom Simende - Fresh Coordinators
Emma and Shalom supervise the effective and efficient delivery of bespoke “fresh” human material. Their roles are demanding, involving liaison with NHS staff, the identification and recruitment of appropriate patients and healthy volunteers in an ever-changing line-up of clinic settings, the bleeding donors when required, as well as arranging couriers from multiple hospitals across the West Midlands.
Johanna Dieguez-Navas - Histology Coordinator and Michael Russell- Histology Coordinator / Technician
Jo and Michael supervise the effective and efficient delivery of histology services, whether contracted to trials, performed “ad hoc” for externals studies, or executed on behalf of researchers using the HBRC protocol. Having extensive research histology experience, Jo and Michael liaise with NHS pathology staff regarding the best sources of tissue for research, and in many cases, they identify suitable samples from the local NHS archives themselves. Together they provide the highest quality of research tissue sections for researchers’ needs.
Administrative and Data Team
Leigh Challinor - Administrative Officer
Leigh works part-time for the HBRC, providing support to senior personnel so that compliance is maintained with current regulations and requirements of the HTA and ethics committees. Leigh also provides administrative support for the HBRC Quality Management System, the HBRC Access Review Panel, and financial recovery processes.
Shannon Smallman - Data Officer
Shannon has responsibility for collecting, storing, and releasing anonymised clinical datasets associated with the human samples provided under the HBRC general protocol. Shannon is a vital part of the process to ensure donor consent and sample traceability records have been stored in secure, auditable locations in accordance with regulatory and NHS requirements. Shannon also understands how to mine a very large and diverse medical dataset maintained by the local NHS trust as part of its patient care processes.
Technical Team
Janine Fenton - Senior Technician
Janine works with the coordinators and managers to support the effective and efficient delivery of custom “fresh” human material, as well as a safe and reliable storage service for small-scale trials. As one of the most experienced technicians, Janine has responsibility for coordinating the maintenance and servicing of all HBRC equipment according to regulations and manufacturer’s instructions. Janine supports the training of new staff to the level of formal competency expected by the HTA licence.
Jayne Rose and Cleo Wright and Darcy Hancocks - Technicians
Jayne, Cleo and Darcy work with the HBRC coordinators to support the delivery of its core services (“fresh” samples, histology, small-scale storage). They assist with the procurement, processing, and release of appropriately consented, quality-assured and annotated materials from patients in a wide range of disease settings, as well as from healthy volunteers. Their role requires them to document samples for multiple projects accurately and contemporaneously, so that HBRC remains legally and ethically compliant, as well as continuing to meet researchers' needs.
Mariyah Ahmed - Technician
Mariyah works part-time with the HBRC coordinators to support the delivery of histology services and data requests. Mariyah’s role requires her to backfill useful clinical data about stored samples, as well as to document samples for multiple projects accurately and contemporaneously as above.