Our Staff

Director of the Centre for Trauma Sciences Research (CTSR)

Professor Zubair Ahmed

Professor of Neuroscience

Institute of Inflammation and Ageing

Zubair Ahmed is a Professor in Neuroscience in the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing. His current focus for research is aligned with University identified priority areas of Immunology, Infection and Inflammation related to Trauma and in particular Neurotrauma. Some of his research projects are aimed at identifying the immune/inflammatory, metabolic and repair systems that determine the outcome of neurotrauma. He has an extensive programme of research based on understanding the molecular mechanisms controlling repair and regeneration in the central nervous system after injury and disease. He is a Theme Lead for Regenerative Medicine at the NIHR Surgical Reconstruction and Microbiology Research Centre (SRMRC) and the Programme Director of the MSc in Trauma Science.

Deputy Director of the CTSR

Professor Antonio Belli

Professor of Trauma Neurosurgery

Institute of Inflammation and Ageing

Professor Belli is a Professor of Trauma Neurosurgery and Director of the Surgical Reconstruction and Microbiology Research Centre (SRMCR) based at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham. The SRMRC is a leading centre for trauma research and was founded in 2011 with £20M grant from NIHR, MoD, the University of Birmingham and University Hospitals Birmingham. He heads the neurotrauma research theme, which carries out translational research on traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury. He is also a practising neurosurgeon at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital where he leads the Neurotrauma service comprised of a formidable team of doctors, nurses and therapists.

Professor Antonio Belli

 

Key members

Professor Nicholas Barnes

Professor of Neuropharmacology

School of Pharmacy

Nicholas Barnes is Professor of Neuropharmacology within the Institute of Clinical Sciences, and has been at the University of Birmingham Medical School since 1991. A Fellow of the British Pharmacological Society, Professor Barnes is a World-renowned translational pharmacologist recognised as one of the World’s Most Highly Cited Researchers (Clarivate Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher). ...

Professor Deborah Falla

Professor Deborah Falla

Rehabilitation & Motor Control Theme Lead
Chair in Rehabilitation Science and Physiotherapy
Director, Centre of Precision Rehabilitation for Spinal Pain

School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences

Professor Falla is an expert in rehabilitation science and musculoskeletal physiotherapy. Her research utilises state of the art electrophysiological measures to evaluate the control of human movement and how it is affected or adapted in response to various states including pain, injury, fatigue and training. Her research interests also include optimising the management of musculoskeletal ...

Professor Liam M Grover

Professor Liam M Grover

Professor in Biomaterials Science
Deputy Head of School
Director of the Healthcare Technologies Institute (HTI)

School of Chemical Engineering

Professor Liam Grover is a Professor in Biomaterials Science and the Director of the Healthcare Technologies Institute, an interdisciplinary network of over 70 academics working together to advance new technologies and treatments that encourage better tissue healing and rehabilitation tools.  The HTI brings together leading experts from a variety of disciplines across the University of ...

Professor Janet M Lord

Professor Janet M Lord

Emeritus Professor of Immune Cell Biology

Institute of Inflammation and Ageing

Janet Lord is Emeritus Professor of Immune Cell Biology and was the founding Director of the MRC-Versus Arthritis Centre for Musculoskeletal Ageing Research.

Her research focusses on the dysregulation of immunity in old age, in particular the decline in neutrophil function and how this compromises the response to infection and tissue injury. She aims to understand the mechanisms involved and to ...

Professor Anthony Metcalfe

Professor Anthony Metcalfe

Professor of Wound Healing

School of Chemical Engineering

Tony Metcalfe is a Professor of Wound Healing within the School of Chemical Engineering and the Healthcare Technologies Institute (HTI), and has published over 60 research papers in scientific journals and numerous abstracts, reviews and book chapters in different research and therapeutic areas including tissue repair, regenerative medicine and scar free healing, dermatology, ophthalmology, ...

Professor Andrew Bagshaw

Professor Andrew Bagshaw

Professor of Imaging Neuroscience

School of Psychology

Professor Bagshaw's main focus is on understanding how the human brain is impacted by sleep and epilepsy, with a particular emphasis on the role of the thalamus. He is also interested in understanding how ongoing brain activity influences brain and behavioural responses. This work requires new tools to be developed and applied, particularly for the acquisition and analysis of simultaneously ...

Professor Tom Clutton-Brock

Professor Tom Clutton-Brock

Professor of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine

Institute of Clinical Sciences

Tom, who is also Director of the Medical Devices Testing and Evaluation Centre, played a vital role in developing and testing ventilators in the Government’s Ventilator Challenge during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Professor Melanie Calvert

Professor Melanie Calvert

Professor of Outcomes Methodology
NIHR Senior Investigator

Institute of Applied Health Research

Professor Melanie Calvert, PhD, is Professor of Outcomes Methodology at the University of Birmingham UK. She is Director of Birmingham Health Partners Centre for Regulatory Science and Innovation and Director of the Centre for Patient Reported Outcomes Researchwhich aims to optimize the use of patient reported outcomes (PROs) in clinical trials and routine care, to improve service delivery, ...

Professor Georgios V. Gkoutos

Professor Georgios V. Gkoutos

Chair of Clinical Bioinformatics, Joint Director of the Centre for Health Data Science
Associate Director of HDRUK Midlands, Deputy Director of the Centre for Environmental Research and Justice
Programme Director for Health Data Science

Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences

Professor Gkoutos holds the chair of Clinical Bioinformatics, a joint appointment between the University of Birmingham Medical School and the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust. 

He is the Joint Director of the Health Data Science Centre at the University of Birmingham, a Faculty Affiliate Professor of Clinical Bioinformatics, Berkeley Lab, Associate Director of MRC Health ...

Dr Paul Harrison

Dr Paul Harrison

Senior Lecturer

Institute of Inflammation and Ageing

Paul Harrison is the Scar Free Foundation Senior Lecturer within the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing at the University of Birmingham in the UK. He is a Past- President of the British Society of Haemostasis & Thrombosis (BSHT) and a Past-chairman of the International Society of Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH) Platelet Physiology Scientific and standardization committee. He has ...

Dr Thomas Jackson

Dr Thomas Jackson

Clinician Scientist in Geriatric Medicine
Visiting Consultant in Geriatric Medicine

Institute of Inflammation and Ageing

Dr Jackson is a geriatrician and clinician scientist.  He investigates cognitive disorders in general hospital settings (delirium and dementia) and how these affect both long term cognitive outcomes and the link with the ageing immune system.  He works in the Immunity and Ageing (Immunesenescence) research group within the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing.

Dr Zsuzsanna Nagy

Dr Zsuzsanna Nagy

Senior Lecturer

Institute of Inflammation and Ageing

Zsuzsanna Nagy is a Senior Lecturer in the Neurotrauma Research Group. 

Zsuzsanna has published over 50 research papers in scientific journals as well as reviews and book chapters in the fields of Alzheimer’s disease and related neurodegenerative diseases. Her grant income is partly from charitable organisations partly from industry. 

She is an enthusiastic communicator on ...

Professor Will Palin

Professor Will Palin

Professor in Biomedical Materials Science
Director of Research

School of Dentistry

Will Palin is a Professor and Chair in Biomedical Materials Science at the School of Dentistry in the Institute of Clinical Sciences. His main area of research into photocurable materials used for both dental and wider biomaterial applications, has attracted grant funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and National Institute for Health Research and industry.

Dr Valentina Di Pietro

Dr Valentina Di Pietro

Assistant Professor of Neurotrauma

Institute of Inflammation and Ageing

Dr Di Pietro is a Molecular Neuroscientist with a MSc in Molecular Biology, a PhD in Clinical Biochemistry and a further degree in Medical Genetics. With almost 20 years of research experience with particular interest in the molecular mechanisms of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), she is an expert of in vitro and in vivo animal models of TBI. She currently leads the research efforts on microRNA ...

Professor Rachel Upthegrove

Professor Rachel Upthegrove

Professor of Psychiatry and Youth Mental Health
Consultant Psychiatrist Early Intervention in Psychosis

School of Psychology

Rachel is Professor of Psychiatry and Youth Mental Health at the University of Birmingham, and Consultant Psychiatrist in the Birmingham Early Intervention Services. Her research Interest is within the field of major mental illness; particularly schizophrenia and co-morbid depression in early phases of illness. Recent projects have developed the investigation of inflammatory models of psychosis ...

Dr Graham Wallace

Dr Graham Wallace

Senior Lecturer in Immunity and Infection

Institute of Inflammation and Ageing

Graham Wallace is a Senior Lecturer in the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing. 

Graham has published over 75 research papers in scientific journals as well as reviews in the fields of ocular immunology, Behcet’s Disease and immunogenetics. He has received grants from Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, Fight for Sight, and the Wellcome Trust. 

He is an enthusiastic ...

Professor Saaeha Rauz

Professor Saaeha Rauz

Professor of Translational Ophthalmology
Honorary Consultant Ophthalmologist

Institute of Inflammation and Ageing

Professor Rauz is a clinical academic who provides a highly-specialised tertiary referral service for complex, blinding immune-mediated ocular surface diseases at the Birmingham and Midland Eye Centre. She has a specialist expertise in rare progressive conjunctival scarring disorders such as mucous membrane pemphigoid and Stevens-Johnson Syndrome / Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis together with ...

Dr Richard Tuxworth

Dr Richard Tuxworth

Associate Professor
Head of Education

Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences

Richard is an Associate Professor and Head of Education based in the Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences. He is a cell biologist with a particular interest in understanding DNA damage in neurological disease.

 

 

Dr Shin-Yi (Chloe) Chiou

Dr Shin-Yi (Chloe) Chiou

Associate Professor in Motor control and Rehabilitation

School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences

Dr Chiou’s research focuses on studying motor cortical involvement in trunk control in older adults and in people living with spinal cord injury. Her work utilises neurophysiological measures, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation, peripheral electrical stimulation, and electromyography, to investigate the control of movement and how it is affected or adapted with ageing and following a ...

Dr Tom E. Nightingale

Dr Tom E. Nightingale

Lecturer in Exercise Physiology

School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences

Dr. Nightingale is an integrative physiologist with an interest in understanding the impact of physical activity on cardiometabolic and cerebrovascular health outcomes in individuals with neurological conditions. Primarily, Tom’s research has focused on the efficacy of therapeutic interventions (exercise and neuromodulation) to improve the health and wellbeing of individuals with a spinal ...

Dr Hannah Botfield

Dr Hannah Botfield

Research Fellow

Institute of Inflammation and Ageing

Hannah Botfield is a research fellow based within the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing.

Her research interest is in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) dynamics in health and disease. Her work focusses on understanding the pathology behind CSF dysfunction in disorders such as hydrocephalus and haemorrhagic stroke, with an emphasis on the role of inflammation, matrix biology and ageing.

Dr Alice M Turner

Dr Alice M Turner

Professor of Respiratory Medicine
Honorary Consultant Respiratory Physician
Institute Director of Research Knowledge and Transfer

Institute of Applied Health Research

Alice’s research interests are predominantly in clinical aspects of alpha 1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), fields in which she has published widely. Optimising monitoring and therapy for AATD is a major focus for her group. They are also studying aspects of care delivery for COPD, particularly those that span from secondary into primary care ...

Dr Lisa J Hill

Dr Lisa J Hill

Associate Professor in Translational Neuroscience
Affiliated with the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing
Affiliated with the Institute of Metabolism and Systems Research

School of Biomedical Sciences

Associate Professor Lisa Hill is a Translational Neuroscientist within the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Birmingham. She is the Pre-Clinical lead of the Translational Brain Science Research Group  and PI/Lead of the Neuro-Ocular Inflammation and Matrix Research Group within Neuroscience, Trauma and Ophthalmology . Completing her PhD at the University of Birmingham in ...

Members outside the University of Birmingham

Lt Col Richard Blanch

Richard Blanch is a Consultant Ophthalmologist in the British Army and an Academic Clinical Lecturer at the University of Birmingham. He has a particular interest in ocular trauma and works closely with the National Institute for Health Research Surgical Reconstruction and Microbiology Research Centre (NIHR SRMRC) – a national centre for trauma research – where he leads the clinical research aiming to understand the causes of poor eyesight after injury and to improve the visual outcomes after retinal injury.

Lt Col Mark Foster (SRMRSC)

Lt Col. Mark Foster is a clinical research fellow for the Academic Department of Military Surgery and Trauma and the NIHR SRMRC. He is in his third year working full-time towards his PhD but also does clinical work on hand trauma.

Professor Naiem Moieman (SRMRC)

Naiem Moiemen is a Consultant Plastic Surgeon and Professor. He joined the Birmingham Burns Unit in 2000 and played a significant role in establishing designated Burns Centre status for adults and children in 2008. He is the Clinical Lead of the Midlands Burn Network ensuring equity of care and seamless clinical pathways across all providers of burns care in the region. He has led burns research in Birmingham since 2012 with the opening of the Healing Foundation (now Scar Free Foundation) Burns Research Centre which operated until 2017. The Centre established a strong foundation of clinical and academic collaborations across the UK. Following on from this Professor Moiemen was instrumental in establishing the new Scar Free Foundation Centre for Conflict Wound Research (CfCWR), which commenced activity in September 2018, and is now the Centre’s Director.

Professor Roslyn Bill

50th Anniversary Professor of Biotechnology

Aston University

Roslyn Bill is a Professor of Biotechnology and Associate Dean (Research) at Aston University. She leads the Aston Membrane Proteins and Lipids team. She is interested in a range of membrane protein, including aquaporin water channel proteins, tetraspanins and GPCRs. Her others interests are in developing yeast as a cell factory to synthesize recombinant membrane proteins.

Mr David Davies

Clinical Lecturer in Neurosurgery

Mr David Davies is a Clinical Lecturer in neurosurgery at the University of Birmingham and works at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham in the field of traumatic brain injury with the NIHR SRMRC. He has developed novel optical techniques within the context of traumatic brain injury, particularly working in conjunction with physical and computer scientists. He is involved in many national and international trials into the treatment of a variety of operative and non-operative aspects of traumatic brain injury, and has experience in many specialist techniques including cerebral microdialysis, brain tissue oxygen monitoring and multi-modal MR imaging. Concussion or mild traumatic brain injury (particularly in sport) is also a key area in which Mr Davies currently works, including the NIHR RECOS and SCRUM studs involving participants elite athletes.

Mr Navin Furtado

Consultant Neurosurgeon and Spinal Surgeon

Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham

Navin Furtado is a Consultant Neurosurgeon and Spinal Surge n at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. He is focussed at dealing with problems affecting the whole spine, spinal cord and nerves of the spine and is an expert in the management of complex spinal conditions such as spine trauma and reconstruction, sports injury affecting the spine, degenerative spinal disorders, spinal tumors and spinal vascular malformations.