Dr Adrian Shields MBBS, MRCP, PhD

Adrian Shields

Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy
Clinical Lecturer

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0)121 414 4069
Email
a.m.shields@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
@immunologydoc
Address
Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy
College of Medical and Dental Sciences
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Adrian Shields is a clinical immunologist interested in understanding the mechanisms that protect us from infections and how those systems fail in individuals with primary and secondary immunodeficiencies.

His recent work has described risk factors for severe COVID-19 in individuals with immunodeficiencies and understanding the antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 in large cohorts of health care workers

Qualifications

Clinical Lecturer in Immunology

  • MCRP – 2015
  • MBBS – 2012
  • PhD in Immunology – 2010
  • BSc (Hons) in Immunobiology and Infectious Disease - 2006

Biography

Adrian studied medicine at King’s College London, undertaking an intercalated PhD in 2006 investigating non-invasive gene delivery as an approach to treat inflammatory arthritis.

He went on to undertake further research projects with Dr Mike Lunn in at the Institute of Neurology, University College London looking for novel autoantigens in paraneoplastic neurological syndromes, with Dr Myles Lewis at the Department of Medical Genetics at King’s College London examining the role of ubiquitin conjugating enzymes in systemic lupus erythematosus and finally with Prof Graham Ogg at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford, looking at proteomic signatures in allergic dermatitis.

His medical training included placements across various South London teaching hospitals before specialty training in Clinical Immunology in Oxford and Birmingham.

Adrian currently chairs the West Midlands regional immunogenomics multi-disciplinary meeting where the results of next-generation sequencing panels for patients with immunodeficiencies are reported and interpreted.

His research interests include the cellular and molecular mechansism underlying primary and secondary immunodeficiency and assay development to understand and interpret genetic variants of unknown significance.

Teaching

  • MBChB
    • Year 3 Immunology module
    • Year 2  Immunology module
  • MPharm
    • Year 2 Immunology module

Postgraduate supervision

Enquires should be directed to a.m.shields@bham.ac.uk

Research

Research interests

  • Primary immunodeficiency
  • Secondary immunodeficiency
  • Genomic medicine in immmodeficiency
  • Immunoassay development

Current projects

  • Understanding the systemic and mucosal antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 in mild and moderate COVID-19
  • Risk factors for severe COVID-19 in patients with primary and secondary immunodeficiency
  • Development of clinical and laboratory biomarkers to define the severity of secondary immunodeficiency

Other activities

  • Chair of the West Midlands Immunogenomics multi-disciplinary meeting
  • Clinical interest in primary and secondary immunodeficiencies, particularly complex secondary immunodeficiency following stem cell transplantation.

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Griffiths, K, Mellado, MR, Chung, R, Lally, J, McQueen, G, Sendt, K-V, Gillespie, A, Ibrahim, M, Richter, A, Shields, A, Ponsford, M, Jolles, S, Hodsoll, J, Pollak, TA, Upthegrove, R, Egerton, A & Maccabe, JH 2024, 'Changes in immunoglobulin levels during clozapine treatment in schizophrenia', Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, vol. 115, pp. 223-228. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2023.10.001

PANORAMIC Virology Group, Standing, JF, Buggiotti, L, Guerra-Assuncao, JA, Woodall, M, Ellis, S, Agyeman, AA, Miller, C, Okechukwu, M, Kirkpatrick, E, Jacobs, AI, Williams, CA, Roy, S, Martin-Bernal, LM, Williams, R, Smith, CM, Sanderson, T, Ashford, FB, Emmanuel, B, Afzal, ZM, Shields, A, Richter, AG, Dorward, J, Gbinigie, O, Van Hecke, O, Lown, M, Francis, N, Jani, B, Richards, DB, Rahman, NM, Yu, L-M, Thomas, NPB, Hart, ND, Evans, P, Andersson, M, Hayward, G, Hood, K, Nguyen-Van-Tam, JS, Little, P, Hobbs, FDR, Khoo, S, Butler, C, Lowe, DM & Breuer, J 2024, 'Randomized controlled trial of molnupiravir SARS-CoV-2 viral and antibody response in at-risk adult outpatients', Nature Communications, vol. 15, no. 1, 1652. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-45641-0

Shields, AM, Faustini, SE, Young, S, Terjesen, S, McCarthy, NI, Anderson, RL, Drayson, MT & Richter, AG 2023, 'Clinical and laboratory characteristics of patients with symptomatic secondary immunodeficiency following the treatment of haematological malignancies', EJHaem, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 339-349. https://doi.org/10.1002/jha2.683

Jones, R, Morales-Munoz, I, Shields, A, Blackman, G, Legge, SE, Pritchard, M, Kornblum, D, MacCabe, JH & Upthegrove, R 2023, 'Early neutrophil trajectory following clozapine may predict clozapine response - Results from an observational study using electronic health records', Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, vol. 113, pp. 267-274. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2023.07.012

Ward, KE, Steadman, L, Karim, AR, Reynolds, GM, Pugh, M, Chua, W, Faustini, SE, Veenith, T, Thwaites, RS, Openshaw, PJM, Drayson, MT, Shields, AM, Cunningham, AF, Wraith, DC & Richter, AG 2023, 'SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with anti-desmoglein 2 autoantibody detection', Clinical and Experimental Immunology, vol. 213, no. 2, pp. 243-251. https://doi.org/10.1093/cei/uxad046

Faustini, SE, Cook, A, Hill, H, Al-Taei, S, Heaney, J, Efstathiou, E, Tanner, C, Townsend, N, Ahmed, Z, Dinally, M, Hoque, M, Goodall, M, Stamataki, Z, Plant, T, Chapple, I, Cunningham, AF, Drayson, MT, Shields, AM & Richter, AG 2023, 'Saliva antiviral antibody levels are detectable but correlate poorly with serum antibody levels following SARS-CoV-2 infection and/or vaccination', Journal of Infection, vol. 87, no. 4, pp. 328-335. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2023.07.018

Vivaldi, G, Jolliffe, DA, Faustini, S, Shields, AM, Holt, H, Perdek, N, Talaei, M, Tydeman, F, Chambers, ES, Cai, W, Li, W, Gibbons, JM, Pade, C, McKnight, Á, Shaheen, SO, Richter, AG & Martineau, AR 2022, 'Correlation Between Postvaccination Anti-Spike Antibody Titers and Protection Against Breakthrough Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infection: A Population-Based Longitudinal Study', The Journal of Infectious Diseases, vol. 226, no. 11, pp. 1903-1908. https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiac321

Shields, AM, Tadros, S, Al-Hakim, A, Nell, JM, Lin, MMN, Chan, M, Goddard, S, Dempster, J, Dziadzio, M, Patel, SY, Elkalifa, S, Huissoon, A, Duncan, CJA, Herwadkar, A, Khan, S, Bethune, C, Elcombe, S, Thaventhiran, J, Klenerman, P, Lowe, DM, Savic, S, Burns, SO & Richter, AG 2022, 'Impact of vaccination on hospitalization and mortality from COVID-19 in patients with primary and secondary immunodeficiency: The United Kingdom experience', Frontiers in immunology, vol. 13, 984376. https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2022.984376

COV-AD consortium 2022, 'Increased Seroprevalence and Improved Antibody Responses Following Third Primary SARS-CoV-2 Immunisation: An Update From the COV-AD Study', Frontiers in immunology, vol. 13, 912571. https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2022.912571

Outcomes following SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients with primary and secondary immunodeficiency in the UK group 2022, 'Outcomes following SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients with primary and secondary immunodeficiency in the UK', Clinical and Experimental Immunology, vol. 209, no. 3, uxac008, pp. 247-258. https://doi.org/10.1093/cei/uxac008

COV-AD consortium 2022, 'SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Responses in Individuals with Antibody Deficiency: Findings from the COV-AD Study', Journal of Clinical Immunology, vol. 42, no. 5, pp. 923-934. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10875-022-01231-7

Lamerton, R, Marcial-Juarez, E, Faustini, S, Perez-Toledo, M, Goodall, M, Jossi, S, Newby, ML, Chapple, I, Dietrich, T, Veenith, T, Shields, A, Harper, L, Henderson, I, Rayes, J, Wraith, D, Watson, S, Crispin, M, Drayson, M, Richter, A & Cunningham, A 2022, 'SARS-CoV-2 spike- and nucleoprotein-specific antibodies induced after vaccination or infection promote classical complement activation', Frontiers in immunology, vol. 13, 838780. https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2022.838780

Shields, AM, Venkatachalam, S, Shafeek, S, Paneesha, S, Ford, M, Sheeran, T, Kelly, M, Qureshi, I, Salhan, B, Karim, F, De Silva, N, Stones, J, Lee, S, Khawaja, J, Kaudlay, PK, Whitmill, R, Kakepoto, GN, Parry, HM, Moss, P, Faustini, SE, Richter, AG, Drayson, MT & Basu, S 2022, 'SARS-CoV-2 vaccine responses following CD20-depletion treatment in patients with haematological and rheumatological disease: a West Midlands Research Consortium study', Clinical and Experimental Immunology, vol. 207, no. 1, pp. 3-10. https://doi.org/10.1093/cei/uxab018

Letter

Elhaj, MO, Richter, AG, Goddard, S & Shields, AM 2023, 'Dose reductions in immunoglobulin replacement are associated with increased antibiotic usage in patients with antibody deficiency', British Journal of Haematology, vol. 202, no. 4, pp. 900-903. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjh.18910

Faustini, S, Shields, A, Banham, G, Wall, N, Al-Taei, S, Tanner, C, Ahmed, Z, Efstathiou, E, Townsend, N, Goodall, M, Plant, T, Perez-Toledo, M, Jasiulewicz, A, Price, R, Mclaughlin, J, Farnan, J, Moore, J, Robertson, L, Nesbit, A, Curry, G, Black, A, Cunningham, A, Harper, L, Moore, T, Drayson, M & Richter, A 2022, 'Cross reactivity of spike glycoprotein induced antibody against Delta and Omicron variants before and after third SARS-CoV-2 vaccine dose in healthy and immunocompromised individuals', Journal of Infection, vol. 84, no. 4, pp. 579-613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2022.01.002