Progress of previous trainees

 Consultant Cardiac Radiologist and NIHR BRC Senior Clinical Research Fellow

Former NIHR ACF and NIHR ACL 

Dr Samer Alabed is a Consultant Cardiac Radiologist and NIHR BRC Senior Clinical Research Fellow at the University of Sheffield. He develops and evaluates machine learning applications in cardiac imaging including automated diagnosis, anatomical segmentation and prognostic assessment.

His current research combines deep learning image analysis and report generation to automate cardiac MRI assessment. His research garnered publication in prestigious radiology, cardiology and respiratory medicine journals and gained recognition in European guidelines (h-index 24, ~20,000 citations). 

He was awarded the Radiological Society of North America Cardiac Research Prize 2021, the Medipex NHS Innovation Prize 2022 and the Future NHS Parliamentary Award 2023. Dr Alabed obtained funding from the NIHR Pre-Application fund (£92k), AMS Clinical Lecturer Starter Grant (£27.5k), South Yorkshire Digital Health Hub (£50k) and Topol Digital Fellowship (£15k).

Senior Clinical Lecturer

Former NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow and Clinical Lecturer

James Alix, CL Neurophysiology 2015 -2018, is now a Senior Clinical Lecturer. His research interests concern new diagnostic techniques for nerve and muscle disorders, with a particular focus on motor neurone disease. He conducted the first trial of 3-dimensional electrical impedance myography, winning the Lord Adrian Prize from the British Society for Clinical Neurophysiology and has developed optical EMG, a electrophysiology/biochemical spectroscopy technique to study muscle. 

His funding as PI includes one MRC DPFS award (£1M), an MND accelerator award to link clinical and preclinical electrophysiology (co-PI, £360,000), three MRC Confidence in Concept awards for the development of new technologies for neuromuscular diseases (combined total £170,000); Motor Neurone Disease Association grants for preclinical and clinical phenotype studies (c£280,000) and EPSRC PhD DTP (c£60,000) on advanced data analysis. He has submitted two patents. 

He is a member of the UKRI Interdisciplinary Assessment College. Key publications are in Brain, Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, Clinical Neurophysiology, Analytical Chemistry and ACS Chemical Neuroscience.

Senior Clinical Lecturer

Former NIHR ACF and ACL

Dr Simon Bell is a highly accomplished researcher and academic leader based in Sheffield, with a strong focus on dementia research. He has an impressive publication record, with 40 peer-reviewed publications, including 20 original articles, 12 of which he authored as first or senior author, resulting in an H-index of 16.

Currently serving as the Deputy Director of the Sheffield Wellcome 4ward North Academy, demonstrating his commitment to fostering research talent. He is also a key investigator for the NIHR AD-SMART platform trial in dementia and holds the position of Deputy Lead for Sheffield within the NIHR Dementia Translational Research Collaboration.

Dr Bell has secured a total of £1.2 million in grant funding as a Principal Investigator or co-applicant, with £175,506 apportioned in the last two years. Furthermore, he is a Co-PI for an MRC-funded Centre for Neuroscience Excellence grant, totaling £327,952.

His research career has been supported by prestigious fellowships, including an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship (2016-2017), an ARUK Funded Preparatory fellowship (2017-2018), and a Wellcome Funded PhD Fellowship (2018-2020). He progressed to an NIHR Clinical Lectureship from 2021 to 2024 and was appointed as a Senior Clinical Lecturer in December 2024.

Senior Clinical Lecturer

Former NIHR Clinical Lecturer

Dr Johnathan Cooper-Knock is an influential researcher in the field of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), with 96 publications to his name, including 78 original research articles, 25 of which he has authored as first or senior author. His significant impact is reflected in an H-index of 41.

Dr Cooper-Knock leads the "Non-coding Genome" working group within Project MinE (projectmine.com), a global initiative dedicated to ALS research. He also leads ALS research within the Snyder Genetics group at Stanford University (Snyder Lab). Furthermore, Dr Cooper-Knock has developed a novel gene therapy approach for ALS, which is currently the subject of ongoing intellectual property (IP) filing, highlighting his innovative contributions to potential treatments.

His research has garnered significant attention, with 3,468 mentions across traditional and social media, including coverage in 189 distinct news outlets, as tracked by altmetric.com.

Dr Cooper-Knock's academic career has been marked by prestigious fellowships, including an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship (2008-2010), a Peake Start-Up Fellowship (2010-2012), an MRC/MNDA Lady Edith-Wolfson Fellow (2012-2016), an NIHR Clinical Lectureship (2016-2020), and a Wellcome Intermediate Fellowship (CRCDF) from 2020 to 2023.

Florey Advanced Fellow and Honorary Consultant

Former NIHR  Academic Clinical Fellow and Clinical Lecturer

Tom Darton, former ACF and CL, is now a Florey Advanced Fellow and Honorary Consultant in Infectious Diseases. 

His active grants support work investigating novel diagnostic signatures for patients presenting with fever in low-resource settings (£1.1m BMGF, PI),  assessing the impact of typhoid conjugate vaccination antimicrobial resistance in Zimbabwe (£400K WT, PI), developing new treatment strategies for patients with typhoid in Asia (£3.4m MRC JGHT, co-I), exploring the transmission of a virulent PVL-MRSA clone in Sri Lanka (£40k GCRF, PI), developing new vaccine candidates to prevent Staphylococcal infection (£160k GSK, PI) in addition to a recent NIHR AMR capital infrastructure award (£1.4m NIHR). During the COVID pandemic Tom has been PI on several COVID19 vaccine (COV002, ENSEMBLE2) and treatment trials (Remdesivir Severe, AGILE) and has worked to develop vaccine research infrastructure in the region. 

Tom has contributed to WHO guidance on the bioethical use of human challenge studies in vaccine evaluation, surveillance of vaccine-preventable disease and measuring the impact of vaccines on antimicrobial resistant infection. Recent research publications include work published in Science, BMJ and the Lancet.

Senior Clinical Lecturer

Former NIHR Clinical Lecturer

Charlotte Elder, CL in Paediatrics 2015-2018, is now a Senior Clinical Lecturer. Her principal research focus is the development of a novel, non-invasive diagnostic test (Nasacthin Test) and salivary cortisone as a non-invasive screening test both for adrenal insufficiency. A patent application for Nasacthin has been filed in seven international territories and granted in...*. She has been awarded £387,000 in grant funding as lead or sole applicant. MRC DPFS in 2022 (£1.06m), MRC UKRI Biomedical Sciences Innovations Scholars Secondment in 2021 (£156k), MRC Confidence in Concepts recipient 2016 (£84,988) and 2018 (£83,730). Other grants include Academy of Medical Science starter grant for CL 2016 (£30,000) and annual British Society for Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes research prize 2015 (£15,000) and four grants from Sheffield’s Children’s Hospital Charity totalling £160,395. 

Recent relevant publications include: 

• A retrospective study on weaning glucocorticoids and recovery of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Arshad FA, Elder CJ, Newell-Price J, Ross RJ, Debono M. J Clin Endocrinol Metabol 2024. Volume 109, Issue 11, November 2024, Pages e2031–e2037, https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgae059
• Multivariable model to predict an ACTH stimulation test to diagnose adrenal insufficiency using previous test results. Lawrence NR, Arshad MF, Pofi R, Ashby S, Dawson J, Tomlinson JW, Newell-Price J, Ross RJ, Elder CJ*, Debono M* (* joint senior authors). J Endocr Soc. 2023 Oct 7;7(12):bvad127.
• Real world evidence supports waking salivary cortisone as a screening test for adrenal insufficiency. Debono M, Caunt S, Elder CJ, Fearnside J, Lewis J, Keevil BG, Dixon S, Ross RJ. Clin Endocrinol. 2023;1‐8.
• Emergency and Peri-operative Management of Adrenal insufficiency in Children and Young People: British Society for Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes Consensus Guidance. Mushtaq T, Ali SR, Boulos N, Boyle R, Cheetham T, Davies JH, Elder CJ et al. Arch Dis Child. doi:10.1136/ archdischild-2022-325156
• Home Waking Salivary Cortisone to Screen for Adrenal Insufficiency. Debono M, Elder CJ et al. NEJM-Evidence 2023;2(2) DOI: 10.1056/EVIDoa2200182
• Salivary steroid collection in children under conditions replicating home sampling. Tonge JJ, Keevil BG, Craig JN, Whitaker M, Ross RJ, Elder CJ. J Clin Endocrinol Metabol 2022 https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgac419
• Elder CJ, Vilela R, Johnson TN, Taylor RN, Kemp EH, Keevil BG, Cross AS, Ross RJ, Wright NP. Pharmacodynamic studies of nasal tetracosactide with salivary glucocorticoids for a non-invasive Short Synacthen Test. JCEM 2020; 105(8): 2692-2703.
• Elder CJ, Harrison RH, Cross AS, Vilela R, Keevil BG, Wright NP, Ross RJ. Use of salivary cortisol and cortisone in the high- and low-dose Synacthen test. Clin Endocrinol (Oxf.) 2018,88:772-778 (DOI: 10.1111/cen.13509)
• Cross AS, Kemp EH, White A, Walker L, Meredith S, Sachdev P, Krone NP, Ross RJ, Wright NP, Elder CJ. International survey on high- and low-dose synacthen test and assessment of accuracy in preparing low-dose synacthen. Clin Endocrinol (Oxf.) 2018;88:744-751 

She was appointed Senior CL paediatric Endocrinology in 2018 (part time, initially 1 day per week, increasing to 2.5 days) and was taken on as a permanent member of UoS staff following the completion of her UKRI Biomedical Sciences Innovations Scholars Secondment in June 2024. Charlotte has an interest in medical education and has been lead for Paediatric Endocrinology module on the Clinical Endocrinology & Diabetes MSc course. She is Deputy Director of Phase 3a and represents UoS as a partner governor on the Board of Governors at Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust. 

Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) Professor

Former NIHR Research Methods Fellow, Doctoral Research Fellow, Clinical Trials Fellow and Clinical Lecturer

Gordon Fuller is an Emergency Medicine consultant working at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust and also holds an NIHR Research Methods Fellowship. He was CI for the ACUTE trial while undertaking his Clinical Lectureship. He completed an NIHR ACF, an MPH specialising in Global Health, and an NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship before coming to Sheffield where he undertook an NIHR Clinical Trials Fellowship and NIHR Clinical Lectureship prior to his current academic role. He is twice-winner of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine Rod Little prize for research. Research grants as CI have included: NIHR HTA Major Trauma Triage Study (£612K); NIHR HTA ACUTE: Ambulance CPAP: Use, Treatment effect and Economics randomised controlled trial (£420,000). 

Research grants as co-CI have included: 

• DIPEP: Diagnosis and investigation of PE in Pregnancy
• The Head Injury Transportation Straight to Neurosurgery (HITSNS) Trial
• Packman study: RCT - prehospital ketamine v morphine for traumatic pain
• TIME: Take home naloxone Intervention Multicentre Emergency setting feasibility trial
• PHEWS - Prehospital sepsis screening tools. Head of research for World Rugby’s Head Injury Assessment Project

Associate Professor, University of East Anglia

Former NIHR Clinical Lecturer

Pankaj Garg, CL Cardiology.  Pankaj has successfully attained a Wellcome Trust Clinical Career Development Fellowship and has been made fellow of the European Society of Cardiology. 

Pankaj is a co-applicant on Wellcome trust digital innovator award (£627K) and NIHR AI in health and care (£836K) awards.

Senior Clinical Lecturer

Former NIHR ACF, DRF and CL

Dr Esther Hobson is an accomplished researcher dedicated to developing evidence-based clinical care for individuals living with motor neuron disease (MND). Her significant contributions are reflected in her 43 peer-reviewed journal articles and an impressive H-index of 19.

As a testament to her research leadership, Dr Hobson is a co-applicant and member of the UK MND Research Institute. She has successfully secured an estimated £2 million in grant income as a chief investigator through prestigious funding bodies such as NIHR RfPB and HSDR, and an additional estimated £6 million as a co-applicant from NIHR RfPB, HSDR, and the MND Association/Marie Curie. Demonstrating her leadership in clinical research, Dr Hobson is the Chief Investigator of a 12-site UK randomised controlled trial. Furthermore, she has developed innovative telehealth systems, TiM-R and TiM-C, which are now utilised across the UK to support clinical care and research in the field of MND.

Dr Hobson's academic career has been supported by prestigious NIHR fellowships, including an Academic Clinical Fellowship (2011-2014), a Doctoral Research Fellowship (2014-2017), and a Clinical Lectureship (2017-2019). She was appointed as a Senior Clinical Lecturer in 2020.

NIHR Advanced Fellow

Former NIHR Clinical Lecturer

Shamanthi Jayasooriya, former CL, is an academic GP with an NIHR advanced fellowship exploring underdiagnosis of Chronic Obstructive Airways Disease (COPD) in underserved populations, using a mixed methods explanatory sequential study design. Her study will assess COPD prevalence and identify challenges in primary care, with the goal of improving early diagnosis and outcomes in underserved communities.

She works closely with the Global Asthma Network on improving access to inhalers, having co-led a multi-stakeholder event, with World Health Organisation representation. She used the Delphi method to create Clinical Standards for Asthma care in low- and middle-income countries and most recently was first author on an asthma review paper in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. 

She holds advocacy and consultancy roles both at a national (British Thoracic Society Global Lung Health Group) and international level (World Health Organisation, Global Alliance for Chronic Respiratory Disease). These networks have supported her academic development and led to publications in The Lancet on non-communicable chronic respiratory disease and in The Lancet Infectious Disease on TB Survivors. 

NIHR Advanced Fellow

Former NIHR ACF and CL

Dr Carl Marincowitz is a former NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow, Doctoral Research Fellow and Clinical Lecturer. He is currently undertaking an NIHR Advanced Fellowship and is an honorary consultant in Emergency Medicine.

Preparatory work for his Advanced Fellowship was supported by the Urgent and Emergency Care Theme Yorkshire and Humber NIHR Applied Research Collaboration. In Carl’s Advanced fellowship, he is using nationally routinely collected data to measure regional variation in emergency hospital use by care home residents and in-depth qualitative case study methods to assess whether the variation is due to differences in available enhanced services for care homes.

Carl is part of the Centre for Urgent and Emergency Care Research Group, is an Associate Editor for the Emergency Medicine Journal, Co-lead health data science and informatics neuroscience theme NIHR Sheffield Biomedical Research Centre, and EMS 999 Research Forum Board member.

Senior Clinical Lecturer

Former NIHR Clinical Lecturer

James Meiring is currently a senior clinical lecturer at the University of Liverpool, based at the Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust programme in Blantyre, Malawi. He is also an infectious disease clinician. 

His research interests focus on the epidemiology of enteric fever and prevention through vaccination. James has myriad experience both in largescale epidemiological studies and targeted clinical vaccine trials, the latter ranging from phase one trials to assessments of post-production impact. 

Previously Dr Meiring successfully completed an Academic Clinical Lectureship at the University of Sheffield before moving to the University of Liverpool to take up his Senior Clinical Lecturer role.

NIHR Advanced Fellow

Former NIHR Clinical Lecturer

Dr Jenna Morgan is a Consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon with an academic career focused on improving the outcomes for older breast cancer patients. Following her NIHR Academic Clinical Lectureship in General Surgery at the University of Sheffield, she secured a University Academic Clinical Consultant contract through a highly competitive NIHR Advanced Fellowship Award, which provided four years of dedicated research time.

Her research has significantly contributed to the field, evidenced by an H-index of 25, over 70 peer-reviewed publications, and more than 2600 citations, primarily centred on treatment decisions and outcomes in older breast cancer patients.

Dr Morgan has demonstrated a strong track record of securing substantial research funding. As primary applicant, they were awarded a £969,138.00 NIHR Advanced Fellowship to develop a decision aid for older, frailer breast cancer patients. She has also been a co-applicant on several significant grants, including:

• £69,629.16 from Crohn’s and Colitis UK, investigating patient perspectives on early bowel resection in Crohn’s disease.
• £9994.45 from BASO, examining the use of metabolomics, digital mobility sensors, and tissue senescence to predict surgical outcomes in cancer patients.
• £16200.00 from the A & F Green Charitable Trust, funding pilot research into biomarkers of ageing and clinical outcomes in older women.

Dr Morgan actively contributes to the advancement of breast surgery through their involvement in national organisations. She serves on the National Association of Breast Surgery Academic and Research Committees. She is also a steering committee member for several national breast trials, including SMALL, MARECA, LOLIPOP, and iBRA-NET Localisation studies.

Senior Clinical Lecturer and Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Career Development Fellow

Former NIHR Clinical Lecturer

Paul Morris, CL Cardiology 2016 - 2020, is now a Senior Clinical Lecturer and Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Career Development Fellow. 

Grants (focused on developing novel computational technologies to quantify coronary blood flow): 

• EPSRC Health Technologies Connectivity Awards (£429,872)

• UK Civil Aviation Authority (£240,000)

• EPSRC PhD DTP, 2021 (£60,000)

• UKRI NPIF QR, 2021 (£35,000)

• University of Sheffield /EPSRC KE award, 2021 (£20,000)

• EPSRC Knowledge Exchange Grant, 2020 (£54,910)

• University of Sheffield Public Engagement Fund, 2020 (£6,000)

• EPSRC PhD Scholarship, 2019 (c£60,000) 

• Saudi Cultural Bureau, PhD Scholarship, 2019 (£53,450)

• Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Career Development Fellowship. Personal Fellowship, 2019 - 2023 (£570,730) 

• British Heart Foundation Translational award, 2019 (£297,253)

• Medical Research Council, Confidence in Concept award, 2018 (£72,565)

Paul is working with the UK Civil Aviation Authority to develop computer modelling techniques to risk stratify commercial spaceflight. 

He has two patent applications: GuideGlide; a novel catheter guiding device and virtu-Q - a method for determining volumetric blood flow. He was awarded best eHealth and digital health technology for virtuQ at the ESC World Congress of Cardiology, Paris, France, 2019. He is Director for Clinical Translation at Insigneo Institute for In Silico Medicine, and sits on several national and international research advisory and steering committees.

Significant papers

Senior Clinical Lecturer

Former NIHR Clinical Lecturer

Ruth Payne, Senior Clinical Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Microbiology. 

Research interests include clinical vaccine trials, vaccine immunology and controlled human infection (‘challenge’) trials. Ruth is PI on multiple vaccine/ prophylactic therapeutics clinical trials, working with both academic and industry partners. She supervises a clinical PhD student and two clinical research fellows and her area of research focuses particularly on the early innate responses to vaccination. She has also conducted qualitative research to evaluate potential barriers and co-design solutions for improving transitions between clinical work and academia for academic trainees, and has since been appointed as one of the two academic supported return to training (SuppoRTT) champions for the Yorkshire and Humber region. In addition, she is one of the deputy academic training programme directors (TPD) in Sheffield, and the deputy director for the Sheffield Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Preparatory Course. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to working on multiple vaccine trials, Ruth contributed to the Academy of Medical Sciences reports on winter preparedness for 2020/21 and 2021/22, which gained high levels of support from senior government officials, including the Government Chief Scientific advisor. She was also a member of the British Society of Immunology and COVID-19 Taskforce, contributing to several reports  aimed at policymakers in the UK. She continues to work with the Academy of Medical Sciences on policy, currently working to develop guidance on sustainability in health research. 

Professor of Cardiology

Former NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow and Clinical Lecturer

Alex Rothman, SCL Cardiology from 2016 and Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Career Development Stage 1 Fellowship 2017-2022. The Phase IIb, MRC ILA Heart study was the first randomised trial to demonstrate the therapeutic tractability of Interleukin-1 signalling in coronary artery disease with findings published in the European Heart Journal and the New England Journal of Medicine. The study was validated by CANTOS, a phase III study of over 10,000 patients published in the New England Journal of   Medicine citing his work, and latterly by COLCOT and LoDoCo2, also published in the New England Journal of Medicine. He has taken one additional drug from discovery to phase IIb clinical study with a major pharmaceutical company, with the novel mechanism of action described by his first author publication in Cell (can only include the manuscript publication if the manuscript has been fully published by the time the site goes live). He developed a pulmonary artery denervation catheters and procedures which have successfully completed multicentre first in human studies resulting in FDA breakthrough device designation and forthcoming FDA approval studies. 

He developed a novel pulmonary artery pressure monitor and heart failure management system which has also successfully completed multicentre first in human, CE-mark and FDA approval studies. In 2024/2025 the device was approved by the FDA and reimbursement approved by CMS leading to acquisition by Edwards for ~$700m. Multiple patents underpin funding for both projects and the work underpinning the development of the pulmonary artery pressure monitor and heart failure management system was returned by The University of Sheffield as an Impact Case in REF 2021. Additionally, IP derived from Alex’s research has been licenced to form multiple companies. Current device development work is funded by awards from the EPSRC, Innovate UK and BHF (~£2.8m). 

Based on these drug and device development and clinical trial experiences Alex and the team have multiple large UKRI and commercial awards (NIHR EME, MRC DPFS, MRC Exp Med and EPSRC – study funding ~£7m) to undertake digitally enhanced decentralised clinical trials the first of which is now published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine (again needs to be out if quoted). These advances have been recognised by awards including a Royal College of Physicians Quincentennial Lecture, the American Heart Association Young Investigator Award, the British Society of Cardiology Young Investigator Award, British Thoracic Society Young Investigator Award, the ESC Digital Health Technology Award, Trans-catheter Therapeutics Innovation Award, Technology and Heart Failure Therapeutics Innovation Award.

Consultant Nephrologist

Former NIHR Clinical Lecturer

Roslyn gained an MRC Confidence in Concept grant 2016 and completed an NIHR Clinical Trials Fellowship in 2018. She was appointed as consultant nephrologist at Sheffield in 2019. She is the current chair of the National Clinical Study Group for Cystic Diseases.

Professor of Clinical Cardiothoracic Radiology, Wellcome Trust Clinical Career Development Fellow

Royal College of Radiologists Roentgen Professor (2024), Incoming BHF Senior Clinical Research Fellow (June 2025)

Former NIHR Clinical Lecturer

Professor Andy Swift is an academic radiologist specialising in cardiothoracic imaging and artificial intelligence. He has completed a Wellcome Trust Clinical Career Development Fellowship and will commence a British Heart Foundation Senior Clinical Research Fellowship in June 2025. In 2024, he was named the Roentgen Professor by the Royal College of Radiologists in recognition of his contributions to academic radiology and national training.

His research focuses on AI-driven cardiovascular imaging, with a particular emphasis on pulmonary hypertension and cardiac MRI. He is the Principal Investigator on multiple major research programmes funded by Wellcome, NIHR, and industry. His work has directly influenced clinical practice and international policy, contributing to the 2022 ESC/ERS Guidelines on Pulmonary Hypertension.

Professor Swift works closely with medical physicists, computer scientists, clinicians and radiographers developing AI tools to improve imaging assessments in cardiothoracic diseases. With colleagues his research has received national recognition, winning the 2023 Future NHS Parliamentary Award and the 2022 MEDIPEX NHS Innovation Award for the clinical translation of AI in cardiac MRI. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers, has an H-index of 51, and is Associate Editor for Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine and previously Clinical Radiology.

He co-founded the Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute Imaging Workgroup, supporting pulmonary hypertension research internationally.  As Academic Lead for Radiology Training, he mentors a growing team of PhD students and clinical academics, several of whom have received major national and international awards and fellowships.

Professor of Infectious Diseases 

Former Wellcome Trust Intermediate Clinical Fellow and NIHE Clinical Lecturer

Prof de Silva MBE, CL Infectious Diseases and Microbiology (2013 - 2016) - Wellcome Trust Intermediate Clinical Fellowship 2016-2021 between Imperial College, MRC Unit The Gambia at LSHTM and The University of Sheffield; Senior Clinical Lecturer and Honorary Consultant Physician in Infectious Diseases, The University of Sheffield, 2021.Professor of Infectious Disease 2023 -

Prof. de Silva held a Wellcome Trust Intermediate Clinical Fellowship evaluating immunogenicity of intranasal influenza vaccine (LAIV) and viral-bacterial interactions in Gambian children (£1.3 million) and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) award for $449K (2019-2022) to look at the induction of broadly cross-reactive antibodies to conserved influenza antigens following LAIV. His first main output from the Wellcome Trust fellowship is a senior author paper in The Lancet Resp Med (2019). 

He has had significant involvement in COVID-19 research since return to Sheffield as SCL: 1) Sheffield PI in COVID-19 Genomics Consortium UK (COG-UK), contributing to national effort to sequence SARSCoV2 (£530K), including co-authorship on papers in Cell, Cell, Host and Microbe and others; 2) COVID19 T-cell immunology studies as part of the ISARIC4C consortium, Coronavirus Immunology Consortium (CIC) and Sheffield PI for DHSC-funded PITCH consortium (total £520K). He continues to be a PI in the Vaccines and Immunity Theme at MRC Gambia, with additional awards from BMGF for ~$250K and co-investigator on MRC award for £1.2 million on household transmission of respiratory viruses. He is the co-supervisor on three Wellcome Trust Clinical PhD fellowships in Global Health.

We are delighted that Thushan has been appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for his team’s spearheading research to help progress the fight against Covid-19. Since the start of the pandemic in the UK, Dr de Silva has been leading the Sheffield Covid-19 Genomics group, which was formed in March 2020 as part of the national Covid-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium to track the spread and evolution of the virus.

NHS Consultant 

Former NIHR Clinical Lecturer

Nick was awarded a research grant of £250K by Boehringer Ingelheim in 2019 to extend a study in use of multinuclear magnetic resonance imaging as a biomarker in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. He developed the original proposal and investment was made by Boehringer on the strength of conference presentations, linked to his PhD, culminating in a seminal paper:

Weatherley ND, Stewart NJ, Chan H-F, et al. Hyperpolarised xenon magnetic resonance spectroscopy for the longitudinal assessment of changes in gas diffusion in IPF horax: first published as 10.1136/thoraxjnl-2018-211851 on 2 November 2018.