Dr Kylie Belchamber PhD

Kylie Belchamber

Institute of Inflammation and Ageing
Research Fellow
Early Career Researcher Committee Lead

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0)121 371 3264
Email
k.belchamber@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
@kyliebelchamber
View my research portal
Address
Birmingham Acute Care Research Group
Institute of Inflammation and Ageing
University of Birmingham Research Laboratories
Queen Elizabeth Hospital
Birmingham
B15 2TH

Dr Kylie Belchamber is a Research Fellow in the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing (IIA). She is an innate immunologist whose research focuses on the role monocytes, macrophages and neutrophils play across the life-course, and in age-related diseases.

She has a particular interest in macrophage function, and understanding how macrophage dysfunction leads to disease pathogenesis. Her research to date has focused on respiratory diseases in both the acute (pneumonia) and chronic (AATD, COPD) setting, as well as across the healthy life course. More recently, she has developed an interest in the role of placental macrophages in healthy pregnancy, and in pregnancy complications.

Qualifications

  • Post Graduate Certificate in Higher Education, 2023
  • PhD in Immunology, University of Surrey, 2013
  • BSc (Hons) Pharmacology, University of Portsmouth, 2008

Biography

Dr Kylie Belchamber 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 age-related disease, and in how immune cells interact to drive this process.

In 2019, Kylie joined the Acute Care Research Group at the University of Birmingham to undertake a post-doctoral fellowship funded by the Alpha-1 foundation, studying macrophage and neutrophil function in alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD). She has since developed her research interests into two core themes:

  1. The role of innate immunity in healthy ageing, and in age-related diseases
  2. The role of maternal placental macrophages in pregnancy, and pregnancy complications

Kylie leads the Early Career Researcher (ECR) Committee within IIA.

Kylie is also Secretary for the British Association for Lung Research (BALR) and is passionately involved in public outreach.

Teaching

Undergraduate

  • Biomedical Science (UG)
  • Immunity and Inflammatory Disease: Deputy Module Lead

Dr Belchamber supervises BMedSci UG and MBCHB intercalation projects. 

Postgraduate

  • Respiratory Medicine MSc

Postgraduate supervision

Kylie supervises laboratory-based research projects for several MSc programmes.

Kylie has supervised 1 PhD student to completion, and currently supervises 2 doctoral students.

Kylie is interested in supervising doctoral research students who are interested in the field of innate immunology in ageing, respiratory disease and pregnancy. If you are interesting in studying any of these subject areas please contact Dr Kylie Belchamber directly. 

Research

Kylie’s research focuses on the role of macrophages in the pathogenesis of healthy ageing and age-related disease. She works closely with other members of the Acute Care Research Group to study immune-related disease; with the Respiratory Microbiome Group to study host:pathogen interactions; and with the Womens Metabolic Health BRC theme to study the immunology of pregnancy.


Current projects

  1. The function of monocytes and macrophages in AATD and COPD.
  2. The role of monocytes and macrophages in healthy ageing and frailty.
  3. The role of decidual macrophages in healthy pregnancy and pregnancy complications (preterm birth and preeclampsia).

Other activities

Roles

Membership of Scientific Societies

  • European Respiratory Society (ERS)
  • British Association for Lung Research (BALR)
  • British Immunological Society (BSI)

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

Quarton, S, McGee, K, Cumley, N, Behruznia, M, Jeff, C, Belchamber, K, Cox, M, Thickett, D, Scott, A, Parekh, D, McNally, A & Sapey, E 2024, 'Towards personalised anti-microbial and immune approaches to infections in acute care. Can real-time genomic-informed diagnosis of pathogens, and immune-focused therapies improve outcomes for patients? An observational, experimental study protocol', PLoS ONE, vol. 19, no. 3, e0298425. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0298425

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

Lodge, KM, Vassallo, A, Liu, B, Long, M, Tong, Z, Newby, PR, Agha-Jaffa, D, Paschalaki, K, Green, CE, Belchamber, KBR, Ridger, VC, Stockley, RA, Sapey, E, Summers, C, Cowburn, AS, Chilvers, ER, Li, W & Condliffe, AM 2022, 'Hypoxia Increases the Potential for Neutrophil-mediated Endothelial Damage in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease', American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, vol. 205, no. 8, pp. 903-916. https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.202006-2467OC

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

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

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

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

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