Research interests

• Cell Signalling in Disease
• Epithelial-Mesenchymal Crosstalk
• Pulmonary Fibrosis
• Precision Oncology

Current research

Pulmonary fibrosis (PF) is a life-threatening condition of the lungs where the tissue becomes thickened, stiff, and scarred, limiting the amount of oxygen getting into the blood. With less oxygen in the blood, patients with PF can get breathlessness from everyday activities like walking. The prevalence of PF is increasing with an ageing population and its burden after COVID-19 recovery could be substantial. Our recent study suggests that at 12-month after discharge, residual abnormalities of lung function were observed in one-third of patients following COVID-19 related hospitalisation. As approved therapies for PF only slow disease progression, there is a significant unmet medical need.

    We reported recently that in PF, due to the abnormal communications within the lungs, healing continues to occur resulting in the build-up of stiff scar tissue that affects the ability of the lungs to function properly. The long-term of my research aims to provide effective targeted therapies for sufferers to reduce symptoms of this devastating disease and improve their quality of life as well as to identify biomarkers for PF patients. 

In undergraduate education, I am the module coordinator for the significantly reconfigured second year Pharmacology module. This covers both semesters and serves all the major BioSci degree programs and cross-faculty in Chemistry. This module is a cornerstone and allows for advanced specialisation in the third year (e.g. Molecular Pharmacology, Selective Toxicity and Medicinal Chemistry etc). I have undertaken a thorough review of the content and delivery of this module, which is one of the largest in BioSci, with over 200 students, and consists of lectures, practicals and some assessed and non-assessed pharmacology skills sessions. The practicals and assessments have been redesigned to reduce complexity and foster an integrated approach to Pharmacology across both semesters, and now include synoptic components with clinical applications. The subject "Pharmacology & Pharmacy" was ranked 5th in the Complete University Guide UK 2021.

    I have a full teaching load that delivers high-quality education that receives excellent student feedback with popular non-compulsory modules. I also take a full load of tutees and project students (BIOL3034 UG Laboratory project, BIOL3066 Science Communication and BIOL6013 Masters Advanced Research Project). I have been an International Tutor since Aug 2020 and have established regular meetings and tutorials to engage with the international students at BioSci providing pastoral and academic support so that they have the best possible experience at Southampton.

I have a long-held interest in functional genomics and cell signalling and have published over 80 papers in peer-reviewed journals, including corresponding-authored Lancet Respir Med, eLife, Cell Death Differ, Autophagy, Journal of Infection and Cell Death Dis, and first-authored Nat Cell Biol and PNAS articles etc., with an H index of 33 (Google Scholar).

    After successful completion of MBBS in medicine and PhD in cell biology, I undertook postdoctoral training in Julian Downward’s CRUK Signal Transduction laboratory and Prof Xin Lu’s lab in Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research Oxford Branch. In 2016, I joined School of Biological Sciences (BioSci) in the University of Southampton (UoS) as Lecturer after being successful at a very competitive recruitment process. I have sought to identify research links in areas of strategic importance to the University and I recognised that lung diseases offered me this opportunity. My fundamental work on hypoxia, RAS signalling, regulators of epithelial polarity and on epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) is not only crucial for understanding diseases such as cancer, but for many other chronic diseases where epithelial dysfunction and fibrosis are evident. To make my current work distinct and competitive, it was immediately clear that my skills and experience were highly relevant to non-malignant lung disease, especially idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), which has a prognosis worse than many cancers. This allowed me to integrate with Southampton's internationally recognised ‘bench to bedside’ researchers in both cancer AND respiratory disease, and to rapidly establish a distinct niche for myself in UoS.