Dr Kylie Belchamber PhD

Kylie Belchamber

Institute of Inflammation and Ageing
Post-doctoral Research Fellow

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0)121 371 3264
Twitter
@kyliebelchamber
View my research portal
Address
Institute of Inflammation and Ageing
University of Birmingham Research Laboratories
Queen Elizabeth Hospital
Birmingham
B15 2TH

Dr Belchamber is a respiratory immunologist who studies the function of immune cells in the lungs. Her main focus is the role of macrophages in chronic lung diseases including COPD and alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, and she is also interested host-pathogen interactions in the respiratory tract.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Immunology, University of Surrey, 2013
  • BSc (Hons) Pharmacology, University of Portsmouth, 2008

Biography

Kylie studied Pharmacology at the University of Portsmouth, gaining an interest in immunology. She then pursued a PhD at the University of Surrey, where she studied the role of extracellular ATP as a danger signal in human blood and lung derived dendritic cells. This collaboration with GSK allowed her to gain industry experience during her PhD.

Kylie then moved to the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College London, where she undertook postdoctoral work studying the phenotype and function of macrophages in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. This expanded her research interests towards a desire to understand why the immune system becomes dysfunctional in chronic respiratory disease, and in how immune cells interact to drive this process.

Kylie joined the University of Birmingham in 2019 to undertake a fellowship funded by the Alpha-1 foundation, studying macrophage and neutrophil function in alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.

Kylie is also communications secretary for the British Association for Lung Research and is passionately involved in public outreach.

Teaching

Postgraduate supervision

During her post-doctoral studies, Kylie has supervised 2 MRes students and co-supervised 1 PhD student to completion.

Research

Kylie’s research focuses on:

  • Investigating immune cell function in lung disease
  • Investigating host-pathogen interactions

Kylie works closely with the Birmingham Acute Care Research (BACR) Group.

Other activities

Roles

Membership of Scientific Societies

  • European Respiratory Society (ERS)
  • British Association for Lung Research (BALR)
  • Society for Leukocyte Biology (SLB)

Public outreach

  • Wellcome Trust – I’m a scientist get me out of here! 2016
  • Heart and Lung Repair Shop, NHLI, Imperial College 2014, 2015

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Belchamber, KBR, Thein, OS, Hazeldine, J, Grudzinska, FS, Faniyi, A, Hughes, M, Jasper, A, Yip, KP, Crowley, LE, Lugg, ST, Sapey, E, Parekh, D, Thickett, DR & Scott, A 2022, 'Dysregulated neutrophil phenotype and function in hospitalised non-ICU COVID-19 pneumonia', Cells, vol. 11, no. 18, 2901. https://doi.org/10.3390/cells11182901

Mahida, RY, Scott, A, Parekh, D, Lugg, ST, Belchamber, KBR, Hardy, RS, Matthay, MA, Naidu, B & Thickett, DR 2021, 'Assessment of Alveolar Macrophage Dysfunction Using an in vitro Model of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome', Frontiers in Medicine, vol. 8, 737859. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2021.737859

Faniyi, AA, Hughes, MJ, Scott, A, Belchamber, KBR & Sapey, E 2021, 'Inflammation, ageing and diseases of the lung: Potential therapeutic strategies from shared biological pathways', British Journal of Pharmacology. https://doi.org/10.1111/bph.15759

Walker, EM, Jasper, AE, Davis, L, Yip, KP, Faniyi, AA, Hughes, MJ, Crisford, HA, Spittle, DA, Sapey, E, Belchamber, KBR & Scott, A 2020, 'Mitigating health risks to reopen a clinical research laboratory during the COVID-19 pandemic: a framework', JMIR Research Protocols, vol. 9, no. 12, e22570. https://doi.org/10.2196/22570

Belchamber, KBR & COPDMAP consortium 2019, 'Defective bacterial phagocytosis is associated with dysfunctional mitochondria in COPD macrophages', The European respiratory journal, vol. 54, no. 4, 1802244. https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.02244-2018

Finney, LJ, Belchamber, KBR, Fenwick, PS, Kemp, SV, Edwards, MR, Mallia, P, Donaldson, G, Johnston, SL, Donnelly, LE & Wedzicha, JA 2019, 'Human rhinovirus impairs the innate immune response to bacteria in alveolar macrophages in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease', American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, vol. 199, no. 12, pp. 1496-1507. https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.201806-1095OC

Belchamber, K, Thomas, CM, Dunne, AE, Barnes, PJ & Donnelly, LE 2018, 'Comparison of fluticasone propionate and budesonide on COPD macrophage and neutrophil function', International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, vol. 13, pp. 2883-2897. https://doi.org/10.2147/COPD.S169337

Wrench, C, Belchamber, KBR, Bercusson, A, Shah, A, Barnes, PJ, Armstrong-James, D & Donnelly, LE 2018, 'Reduced clearance of fungal spores by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease GM-CSF- and M-CSF-derived macrophages', American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, vol. 58, no. 2, pp. 271-273. https://doi.org/10.1165/rcmb.2017-0351LE

Wang, Z, Singh, R, Miller, BE, Tal-Singer, R, Van Horn, S, Tomsho, L, Mackay, A, Allinson, JP, Webb, AJ, Brookes, AJ, George, LM, Barker, B, Kolsum, U, Donnelly, LE, Belchamber, K, Barnes, PJ, Singh, D, Brightling, CE, Donaldson, GC, Wedzicha, JA, Brown, JR & COPDMAP consortium 2018, 'Sputum microbiome temporal variability and dysbiosis in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbations: an analysis of the COPDMAP study', Thorax, vol. 73, no. 4, pp. 331-338. https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2017-210741

Abstract

Belchamber, K, Thein, S, Hazeldine, J, Grudzinska, F, Hughes, M, Jasper, A, Yip, KP, Parekh, D, Sapey, E, Thickett, D & Scott, A 2021, 'Late Breaking Abstract - Elevated NETosis and migration but impaired anti-microbial responses by COVID-19 neutrophils', European Respiratory Journal, vol. 58, no. suppl 65, OA3974. https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.congress-2021.OA3974

Belchamber, K, Thein, S, Hazeldine, J, Grudzinska, F, Jasper, A, Hughes, M, Yip, KP, Sapey, E, Parekh, D, Thickett, D & Scott, A 2021, 'S54 Elevated NETosis and migration but impaired anti-microbial responses in neutrophils from non-ICU, hospitalized COVID-19 patients', Thorax, vol. 76, no. Suppl 2, pp. A37. https://doi.org/10.1136/thorax-2021-btsabstracts.60

Preprint

Belchamber, K, Thein, O, Hazeldine, J, Grudzinska, F, Hughes, M, Jasper, A, Yip, KP, Sapey, E, Parekh, D, Thickett, D & Scott, A 2021 'Altered neutrophil phenotype and function in non-ICU hospitalised COVID-19 patients correlated with disease severity' medRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.08.21258535

Walker, EM, Jasper, AE, Davis, L, Yip, KP, Faniyi, AA, Hughes, MJ, Crisford, HA, Spittle, DA, Sapey, E, Belchamber, KBR & Scott, A 2020 'Mitigating health risks to reopen a clinical research laboratory during the COVID-19 pandemic: a framework ' JMIR Publications. https://doi.org/10.2196/preprints.22570

Review article

Belchamber, KBR, Hughes, MJ, Spittle, DA, Walker, EM & Sapey, E 2021, 'New Pharmacological Tools to Target Leukocyte Trafficking in Lung Disease', Frontiers in immunology, vol. 12, 704173. https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2021.704173

Belchamber, KBR, Walker, EM, Stockley, RA & Sapey, E 2020, 'Monocytes and macrophages in alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency', International Journal of COPD, vol. 15, pp. 3183-3192. https://doi.org/10.2147/COPD.S276792

View all publications in research portal