Principal Investigators

Dr. Akerman is interested in answering fundamental questions about gene regulation in diseased and healthy pancreatic beta cells through integrated use of molecular, genomic, computational and systems biology. In particular, her aim is to understand how various types of noncoding DNA elements interact to establish gene expression in the pancreatic beta cell.

Member of the 2017/18 Birmingham ...

Wiebke’s research investigates the role of steroids in health and disease, both in common disease with increased metabolic risk (polycystic ovary syndrome, fatty liver disease, adrenal incidentaloma) and rare adrenal and gonadal disorders.

Dr Breen's expertise centres on understanding the regulation of muscle metabolism in health and disease. Dr Breen has a particular interest in how exercise and nutritional interventions can modify metabolic processes to enhance musculoskeletal remodelling, leading to improved health and performance outcomes.

Davide Calebiro is a Professor of Molecular Endocrinology and Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Metabolism and Systems Research (IMSR) and the Centre of Membrane Proteins and Receptors (COMPARE) of the University of Birmingham.

He leads a multidisciplinary research team comprising biologists, chemists, physicists, engineers and computer scientists focusing on the basic ...

Sarah Conner is a Senior Lecturer in Reproductive Biology and an Honorary Research Scientist at the Birmingham Women’s Fertility Centre.

In addition to her research interests, Sarah is an enthusiastic contributor to and coordinator of Reproduction teaching across a number of undergraduate programmes in the University.

Professor Coomarasamy is the Director of Tommy’s National Centre for Miscarriage Care and Research. His research interests are in fertility, early pregnancy and global women’s health.

Gaby is Senior Lecturer in Cellular Metabolism and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.  She has an interest in energy homeostasis, particularly in fuel sensing mechanisms that may play a role in diabetes and obesity.

Dr Rima Dhillon-Smith is a clinical lecturer based at the  Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. She combines her academic work with clinical duties as a registrar in Obstetrics and Gynaecology.  Rima’s main research interests lie in reproductive endocrinology, subfertility, paediatric gynaecology and early pregnancy.  She is a key ...

Vivek Dhir is a Lecturer in Molecular Endocrinology and has published a number of high impact research papers in scientific journals as well as reviews in the fields of endocrinology, metabolism and genetics. He has received major grants from the Welcome trust and The MRC.

Vivek is keen to talk about his science and gives frequent seminars to various groups at the local, national and ...

Sarah Dimeloe is a Birmingham Fellow working across the Institutes of Immunology and Immunotherapy (III), and Metabolism and Systems Research (IMSR).

Research in Sarah’s lab is focused on the metabolism of immune cells and how this underpins their role in health and disease.

Dr Dimeloe is a member of the 2017/18 Birmingham Fellows

Warwick (Rick) is a Senior Lecturer in Metabolomics, Director of Mass Spectrometry in the Phenome Centre-Birmingham, Director of the Birmingham Metabolomics Training Centre, and theme leader in the MRC Arthritis Research UK Centre for Musculoskeletal Ageing. His research focuses on the development of new analytical chemistry and computational tools for studying metabolism at the holistic and ...

Andy Ewer's research focuses on identification of serious illness in newborn babies, including cardiac defects, gastrointestinal disorders and sudden infant death. His work has lead to a worldwide uptake in screening for congenital heart disease.

Paul leads the Steroid Metabolism in Cancer Research group at the University of Birmingham. He is an established research figure in the endocrinology and cancer fields. With over a decade of experience in both academic and industrial environments, he has extensive research knowledge on a wide-range of areas. He is an author on over 40 scientific peer-reviewed papers, covering endocrinology, ...

Ioannis has carried out the first network meta-analysis in O&G within Cochrane with cost-effectiveness analysis for identifying the most effective and cost-effective uterotonic agents for preventing postpartum haemorrhage in collaboration with the World Health Organisation. The World Health Organisation updated their international guidelinebased on this research. This project was funded by ...

Professor Neil Gittoes has led the development of The Centre for Endocrinology Diabetes and Metabolism(CEDAM) through close partnership working between the University of Birmingham and a clinical services consortium across major teaching Trusts in Birmingham. Through closer integration and understanding, CEDAM has facilitated translational research in endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism and ...

Caroline’s research is focussed on the trafficking and signalling of membrane proteins, and how their impairments contribute to endocrine and metabolic disease. She is currently establishing her research group investigating metabolic GPCRs and how they integrate hormonal signals to regulate appetite. 

Janesh Gupta is Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology working as an Honorary Consultant at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

Janesh has published over 175 research papers in scientific journals, book chapters, reviews and books and over 100 lectures and presentations to learned societies in the fields of fetal medicine, benign gynaecology (including abnormal uterine ...

I am a Versus Arthritis Fellow with extensive experience in steroid metabolism and in vivo models of chronic inflammation. Patients with chronic inflammatory diseases develop systemic complications such as muscle wasting and bone loss, which contribute to disability and reduced life expectancy. My research group is examining the roles of myeloid and mesenchymal steroid metabolism and signalling ...

Dr Shan He is a Senior Lecturer in Computational Biology in the School of Computer Science, at the University of Birmingham. For more information, please see Shan's homepage.

 

Martin’s group investigates the role vitamin D  plays in human health beyond its effects on bone. They focus on vitamin D and immune function, and how this influences infectious diseases, pregnancy and autoimmune disease.

Research in Dave’s lab uses a combination of imaging, chemical biology and genetics to understand how subtle differences in the beta cell barcode may predispose to diabetes in rodents and man.

Jan is an NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Paediatric Endocrinology, based at the IMSR and at the Department of Endocrinology at the Birmingham Children’s Hospital. His research focuses androgen metabolism. He is interested in inborn errors of steroid metabolism, in particular conditions affecting androgen generation. He combines clinical phenotyping and genetic analysis with in vitrofunctional ...

Niki Karavitaki is a Senior Clinical Lecturer in Endocrinology and Honorary Consultant Endocrinologist at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham where she co-leads the Pituitary Service and Pituitary MDT.

Her research and clinical interests focus on hypothalamo-pituitary disease (particularly sellar and parasellar tumours and hypopituitarism) covering pathogenesis, management and long-term ...

Mark Kilby’s research focusses on materno-fetal health, with areas of interest including steroids and the feto-placental unit, new technologies in prenatal diagnosis, fetal in utero therapy, monochorionic twins, and maternal immunotolerance and fetal immunity.

Jackson’s research is about andrology and its application in the diagnosis and treatment of infertility, with direct impact on care and quality of life of the patients involved and the birth of the next generation. 

Yu-Chiang is a Birmingham Fellow in the School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences and affiliated in the Mitochondrial Profiling Centre (MPC), MRC-ARUK Centre for Musculoskeletal Ageing Research and the Institute of Metabolism and Systems Research (IMSR).   

Yu-Chiang’s group focuses on deciphering the signalling networks that regulate muscle metabolic functions. We ...

The Molecular Metabolism Research Group led by Gareth Lavery investigates mechanisms by which nutrients and hormones manage the control of skeletal muscle metabolic energy pathways in normal and adaptive physiology.

Christian’s research is focused on developing novel experimental and analytical approaches to map metabolic pathway activities without assuming a particular metabolism model.

Konstantinos is exploring the hormonal determinants of adipose tissue function in vivo, and the factors leading to adipocyte dysfunction in obesity.

Kendle is a Birmingham Fellow working across the Institutes of Immunology and Immunotherapy (III), and Metabolism and Systems Research (IMSR).

Research in Kendle’s lab is focussed on understanding innate immune pathways in intestinal epithelial cells and their roles in fighting infection and cancer development.

Professor Mauro trained as biochemist and cellular biologist before starting to approach immunological questions with his own group, motivated by the recent ‘renaissance’ in the interest in metabolism in widespread fields of the basic and clinical science.

The Mauro’s group investigates the interconnections between metabolic and inflammatory pathways and how systemic and local ...

Chris McCabe is Professor of Molecular Endocrinology at the University of Birmingham. He works on mechanisms of endocrine cancers, including thyroid, breast and head and neck tumour models. Specifically, the research of the McCabe group focuses on the action of the sodium iodide symporter NIS in thyroid tumours; assessment of the role of the proto-oncogenes PTTG and PBF in thyroid, breast, and ...

Dr Mueller is interested in enzyme-catalysed reactions that modulate hormone function and act as biological switches. One of these transformations is the dynamic sulfation and de-sulfation of steroid hormones. Dr Mueller’s research group studies these sulfation pathways, using a variety of biochemical, bioanalytical and cell biological techniques.

Jon has authored more than 25 primary ...

Krish is a senior clinical academic with substantial experience in health informatics research. He is the theme lead for health informatics at the Institute of Applied Health Research, University of Birmingham. He has particular interests in developing novel digital tools that enable effective/efficient healthcare systems and expedite health care research. He co-innovated the Automated Clinical ...

Cristina Ronchi is an Endocrinologist and clinician scientist with long-standing expertise in endocrine tumors. Her research field mostly focuses on genetic studies and investigations of molecular markers involved in the pathogenesis and prognosis of adrenocortical neoplasia.  She is particularly active in research dissemination and collaborates with several world-leading groups around ...

Alex’s group focuses on metabolic neurology: idiopathic intracranial hypertension, headache and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) disorders. Our translational approach investigates disease pathogenesis and novel therapeutic targets which we then evaluate in our clinical studies.

 

Dave Smith is Professor of Applied Mathematics and School Director of Research.

He is author or co-author of approximately 60 research papers in scientific journals, including in the Internationally-leading publications Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, and Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A. Research software ...

Vicki is interested in thyroid biology and the molecular pathogenesis of thyroid disease. Her research focuses on improving existing treatments and identifying novel therapies in thyroid cancer.

Abd Tahrani is a Senior Lecturer in Metabolic Endocrinology and Obesity Medicine at the University of Birmingham (UOB), and a Honorary Consultant Endocrinologist and Bariatric Physician and the lead for weight management research and diabetic neuropathy services at the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust. Dr Tahrani is also the translational research lead at the Centre ...

Jennifer is a Clinical Lecturer in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Birmingham Women’s & Children’s Hospital. Funded by a Wellbeing of Women Clinical Research Fellowship, Jennifer utilised her PhD to explore vitamin D metabolism in pregnancy, and the potential effects of vitamin D upon immune cell function within the maternal placenta at the University of Birmingham. To help answer ...

Dr. Daniel Tennant is a Reader in Metabolic Biochemistry in the Institute of Metabolism and Systems Research (IMSR), situated on the second floor of the Institute of Biomedical Research. He uses stable isotope tracers to investigate changes in the use of nutrients in conditions where oxygen is limiting (hypoxia), or in the presence of genetic mutations that induce a hypoxia-like response. Dan ...

Professor John Terry is Interdisciplinary Professorial Fellow: a post he holds jointly across Mathematics, Computer Science and the Institute for Metabolism and Systems Research. John’s research transcends traditional discipline boundaries speaking to mathematics, computer science, physics, biology, biomedical and clinical sciences. John has substantially contributed to approaching 70 ...

Shakila Thangaratinam is a professor of maternal and perinatal health at University of Birmingham. As Consultant Obstetrician she is involved in the care of high-risk mothers at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust.  

Professor Thangaratinam has established a strong portfolio of research in maternal ...

Peter Tiňo is a Professor of Complex and Adaptive Systems at the School of Computer Science at the University of Birmingham. He is the author of over 160 research articles in the areas of dynamical systems, machine learning, natural computation and fractal geometry. Peter has been awarded three outstanding Journal Paper of the Year awards and the Head of School's Excellence in Teaching Award.

Professor Mark Viant’s expertise lies in the field of metabolomics. His research spans from method development in analytical chemistry and bioinformatics through to the application of metabolomics to environmental toxicology.

Dr Wallis is an Exercise Scientist with major interests in Nutrition and Metabolism. He studies dietary influences on exercise metabolism, with a particular focus on macronutrients and their roles in performance, training adaptation and health.

Dr Martin Whitham is an integrative physiologist primarily interested in endocrinology and tissue cross-talk in the context of exercise. Since physical activity represents a broad and effective preventative treatment for a host of non-communicable diseases, the main focus of his work is to examine the role small vesicles, exosomes and proteins play in inter-tissue signaling during exercise in ...