YBRI Academic Staff

YBRI hosts over 90 principal investigators covering a range of disciplines, addressing biomedical challenges at regional, national and global scales.

Below you can find academics according to their research interests.  Information relating to YBRI leadership, governance and facilitation can be found on the YBRI Governance and Reporting page.

  • Dr Han-Jou Chen: Neurodegeneration; Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ASL); Alzheimer’s Disease; Frontotemporal Dementia; Parkinson’s Disease
  • Dr Gareth Evans: Neuronal signalling; Neuronal development; Neuroblastoma; Kinase biochemistry
  • Dr Ines Hahn: Neurodegeneration; Neurodevelopmental Disorders; Cytoskeleton; Microtubule Dynamics; Drosophila primary neurons
  • Dr Hannah Hobson: Autism; Developmental Language Disorder; Mental Health; Language and Communication; Psychology
  • Dr Adar Pelah: Visual-perception; Sensory-motor; Locomotion; Virtual-reality-biofeedback; Rehabilitation
  • Professor Stephen Smith: AI and Machine Learning; Intelligent medical devices; Neurodegenerative conditions; Cell tracking, Characterisation and classification
  • Professor Sean Sweeney: Drosophila genetics; Neuromuscular junction; Frontotemporal Dementia; Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS); Pathological signalling
  • Professor Alex Wade: Vision; Attention; fMRI; EEG; Neuroimaging; Neuroscience
  • Dr Noemie Hamilton: Translational Neuroscience; Neurodegeneration; Immunology; Zebrafish in vivo models; Live imaging
  • Dr Manish Chauhan: Soft robotics (for biomedical applications); Microbiology; Robot-assisted medical devices; Optical fibre technology (spectroscopy); Medical diagnostics and therapeutic intervention
  • Professor Victor Chechik: Magnetic nanoparticles; Nanoparticle drug delivery; Reactive oxygen species; Free radicals; EPR spectroscopy
  • Dr Peter Ellison: Bionics, medical devices, medical informatics, decision support tools
  • Dr Yvette Hancock: Label-free methods; Biomolecular stratification; Biomarkers; Clinical translation; Raman spectroscopy
  • Dr Stuart Higgins: Bioelectronics; biomaterials; bioelectricity; cell interfaces; bioengineering
  • Prof Neil Hunt: Ultrafast spectroscopy; Biomolecular interactions; Protein-drug binding; Biofluid analysis
  • Professor Steven Johnson: Biosensors; Infection; Electrochemistry; Microfluidics; Co-design
  • Professor Thomas Krauss: Photonic nanostructures; Optical biosensors; Antimicrobial susceptibility; Nanofabrication technology
  • Professor Mark Leake: Biophysics; Single-molecule; Bioimaging; Super-resolution; Single-cell
  • Dr Samadhan Patil: Point-of-care diagnostics; Bio-sensors; Metabolomics; Antimicrobial resistance; Bio-mechanics
  • Dr James Walsh: Biofilms; reactive oxygen species; cold plasma; antimicrobial resistance; decontamination
  • Dr Chun Zhao: Micro-electro-mechanical Systems; mechanical biosensors; microfabrication; micro-mechanics and dynamics; energy harvesting.
  • Dr Dave Boucher: Cell death; Protease Signalling; Innate Immunity; Biochemistry; Cell Signalling
  • Professor Allison Green:  Autoimmunity; Type 1 Diabetes; Thymic B cells; Immune system ageing; Preclinical and clinical models of disease
  • Dr James Hewitson: Immunology; Parasitology; Immune regulation; Vaccine; Macrophage
  • Dr Vicki Jennings: Oncolytic Viruses; Cancer; Macrophages; non-coding miRNA; Immunity
  • Dr Ioannis Kourtzelis: Macrophage phagocytosis; Inflammation resolution; Anti-tumour immunity; Leukocyte adhesion; Myeloid cell plasticity
  • Professor Dimitris Lagos: Immunity; microRNAs; lncRNAs; RNA-binding proteins; Gene expression regulation
  • Dr Damien Perez Mazliah: B cells; Antibodies; Parasites; Chagas disease; Trypanosoma
  • Dr Michael Plevin: Protein-RNA interactions; microRNAs; Leishmania; Structural biology; Protein phase separation
  • Professor Fred Antson: Structural Biology; Cryo-EM; Protein-nucleic acid interactions; Virus assembly; Herpesviruses
  • Dr Jon Agirre: Structural biology; protein glycosylation; post-translational modifications; method development; alphafold.
  • Dr Jamie Blaza: CryoEM; Electron-tomography; Bacteria; Bioenergetics; Pathogens
  • Professor Marek Brzozowski: Insulin; IGF1; IGF2; Insulin/IGF Receptor; Neurodegeneration
  • Professor Gideon Davies: Glycobiology; Carbohydrate chemistry; Leishmania; Structural biology; Activity-based probes
  • Dr Martin Fascione: Chemical biology; Glycosylation; Protein post-translational modifications; Protein bioconjugation; Organic synthesis
  • Dr Angelo Frei: Metals; antibiotics; inorganic chemistry; synthesis; machine learning
  • Dr William Grey: Stem Cells; Proteostasis; Haematopoiesis; Leukaemia; Cancer
  • Professor Neil Hunt: Ultrafast spectroscopy; Biomolecular interactions; Protein-drug binding; Biofluid analysis
  • Dr Purba Mukhurjee: Protein-primed replication; biocatalysis; kinetics; protein engineering; nucleic acid bioconjugates
  • Dr Chris Spicer: Biomaterials; Tissue engineering; Protein chemistry; Chemical biology
  • Professor Anthony Wilkinson: Protein Structure Function; Biological specificity; Protein crystallography
  • Dr Lianne Willems: Mass spectrometry; Interdisciplinary science; Protein glycosylation; Therapeutics production; Environmental contamination
  • Dr Clara Humpston: Schizophrenia; Mental health; Neuropsychiatry; Pharmacology; Neurochemistry
  • Dr Alex Pike: Mental health; Eating disorders; Anxiety disorders; Computational psychiatry; Neuroimaging
  • Dr David Halliday: Computational Neuroscience; Neural signal processing
  • Dr Andrew Mason: Cancer; Bioinformatics; Functional Genomics; Endogenous Retroviruses
  • Dr Adar Pelah: Visual-perception; Sensory-motor; Locomotion; Virtual-reality-biofeedback; Rehabilitation
  • Dr Gonzalo Blanco: Myopathy; Electroporation; Skeletal muscle hypertrophy; Atrophy
  • Dr Will Brackenbury: Brain tumours; Breast cancer; Ion channels; Metastasis; Microglia
  • Dr Helen Davies: Asthma triggers; In-vitro lung cell/gas exposure experiments; Asthma alarmin expression; Lung Chemistry Modelling; Indoor Air Chemistry Modelling
  • Professor Paul Genever: Mesenchymal stem/stromal cells; Bone marrow; Skeletal biology; Regenerative medicine; Cell and molecular
  • Dr William Grey: Stem Cells; Proteostasis; Haematopoiesis; Leukaemia; Cancer
  • Dr Andrew Holding: Cancer; Nuclear Receptors; Computational Biology; Single Cell Sequencing; Functional Genomics
  • Professor Betsy Pownall: Developmental biology; Embryology; Cell signalling; Genetics; Animal models of disease
  • Professor Jenny Southgate: Urothelium; Bladder cancer; Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine; Transcriptomics; Differentiation
  • Dr Lianne Willems: Mass spectrometry; Interdisciplinary science; Protein glycosylation; Therapeutics production; Environmental contamination

Professor Peter O'Brien: Fragment-based drug discovery; SARS-CoV-2; chemical biology; medicinal chemistry; organic synthesis

  • Dr Simon Baker: Epithelial; Carcinogenesis; Transcriptomics; Genomics; Mutational signatures
  • Dr Will Brackenbury: Brain tumours; Breast cancer; Ion channels; Metastasis; Microglia
  • Professor Dawn Coverley: Cell cycle; Nuclear architecture; Early detection of cancer; Technology transfer
  • Dr Andrew Holding: Cancer; Nuclear Receptors; Computational Biology; Single Cell Sequencing; Functional Genomics
  • Dr Andrew Mason: Cancer; Bioinformatics; Functional Genomics; Endogenous Retroviruses
  • Professor Jenny Southgate: Urothelium; Bladder cancer; Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine; Transcriptomics; Differentiation
  • Dr Simon Crouch: Biostatistics; Stochastic Modelling; Predictive Modelling; Big Data; Haematological Malignancies
  • Dr Jillian Barlow: Immunology; Innate lymphoid cells; Mouse models; Blood cancer; NK cells
  • Dr Katherine Bridge: Cancer cell biology; Transcription factor biology; Haematopoietic stem cells; Hypoxia/HIFs
  • Dr William Grey: Stem Cells; Proteostasis; Haematopoiesis; Leukaemia; Cancer
  • Professor Ian Hitchcock: Haematology; Cancer; Cytokine signalling; Haematopoietic stem cells; Infection
  • Professor David Kent: Leukaemia; Haematopoietic stem cells; Single cell biology; Physical biology of stem cells; Stem cell niche
  • Professor Rob Newton: Cancer; Infections; Africa; HIV; Immunity
  • Professor Eve Roman: Haematological malignancies; Childhood cancers; Epidemiological methods; Adverse reproductive events
  • Dr Alex Smith: Epidemiology; Leukaemia; Lymphoma; Myeloma
  • Professor Adele Fielding: Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL); microenvironment; cancer-associated fibroblasts; clinical trials; biobanking
  • Dr Will Brackenbury: Brain tumours; Breast cancer; Ion channels; Metastasis; Microglia
  • Professor Nia Bryant: Diabetes (Type-2); Membrane traffic; SNARE proteins; Insulin action; Neutropenia
  • Professor Dawn Coverley: Cell cycle; Nuclear architecture; Early detection of cancer; Technology transfer
  • Dr Gareth Evans: Neuronal signalling; Neuronal development; Neuroblastoma; Kinase biochemistry
  • Dr Andrew Holding: Cancer; Nuclear Receptors; Computational Biology; Single Cell Sequencing; Functional Genomics
  • Dr Michelle Hawkins: Bacteria; DNA replication; Helicases; Replication termination; Biochemistry
  • Dr Chris MacDonald: Membrane trafficking; Cell surface membrane proteins; Yeast genetics; Fluorescence microscopy; Biochemistry
  • Dr Andrew Mason: Cancer; Bioinformatics; Functional Genomics; Endogenous Retroviruses
  • Dr Agnes Noy: Molecular modelling; DNA supercoiling; DNA:protein recognition; 3D genomics; Gene therapy
  • Dr Paul Pryor: Lysosome biogenesis; Autophagy; Ageing; Cell biology; Membrane traffic
  • Dr Gavin Barlow: Infection; Antibiotics; Antimicrobials; Biomarkers; Prognosis
  • Dr Kofi Appiah: Computer Vision; Embedded Systems; Machine Learning; Deep Learning; Medical Imaging
  • Professor Simon Duckett: MRI; NMR; Hyperpolarisation; Metabolism; Diagnosis
  • Dr Karla Evans: Visual awareness; Visual neuroscience; Perceptual expertise in radiology; Visual long term memory
  • Professor Zhihong Huang: Functional Ultrasound imaging; Therapeutic ultrasound; Optical Coherent Tomography; Elastography; Tissue mimicking material fabrication and characterisation; Acoustic measurements; Simulation
  • Dr Steven Quinn: Single-molecule spectroscopy; Alzheimer’s disease; Fluorescence, Protein interactions, Model-membranes
  • Professor Anne Duhme-Klair: Medicinal inorganic chemistry; Synthetic chemistry; Bacterial nutrient transporters; Antimicrobials; Bacterial resistance mechanisms
  • Professor Steven Johnson: Biosensors; Infection; Electrochemistry; Microfluidics; Co-design
  • Professor Thomas Krauss: Photonic nanostructures; Optical biosensors; Antimicrobial susceptibility test; Nanofabrication technology
  • Professor Gavin Thomas: Sialic acid; Symbionts of disease vectors; Human microbiome, Escherichia coli, Haemophilus influenzae
  • Professor Stephen Smith: AI and Machine Learning; Intelligent medical devices; Neurodegenerative conditions; Cell tracking, Characterisation and classification
  • Dr Manish Chauhan: Soft robotics (for biomedical applications); Microbiology; Robot-assisted medical devices; Optical fibre technology (spectroscopy); Medical diagnostics and therapeutic interventions
  • Professor Daniela Barilla: Genome segregation, antibiotic resistance, chromosome & plasmid biology, DNA-protein interactions.
  • Dr Christoph Baumann: Microbial biophysics; Single-molecule fluorescence imaging; Membrane Dynamics; Bacterial cell surface biology; Chemical biology
  • Dr Alan Cartmell: Microbiology; Enzymology; structural biology; glycobiology
  • Professor James Chong: Gut microbiome; Nanopore sequencing; Growth of anaerobes
  • Professor Anne Duhme-Klair: Medicinal inorganic chemistry; Synthetic chemistry; Bacterial nutrient transporters; Antimicrobials; Bacterial resistance mechanisms
  • Dr Paul Fogg: Antibiotic resistance; Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR); Evolution; Horizontal gene transfer; Virology; Microbiology
  • Dr Daniel Jeffares: Population genomics, Genome-wide association studies, Plasmodium, Leishmania
  • Professor Steven Johnson: Biosensors; Infection; Electrochemistry; Microfluidics; Co-design
  • Professor Thomas Krauss: Photonic nanostructures; Optical biosensors; Antimicrobial susceptibility test; Nanofabrication technology
  • Dr Sean Meaden: Phage; bacteria; metagenomics; evolution; virulence.
  • Dr Adar Pelah: Visual-perception; Sensory-motor; Locomotion; Virtual-reality-biofeedback; Rehabilitation
  • Professor Gavin Thomas: Sialic acid; Symbionts of disease vectors; Human microbiome, Escherichia coli, Haemophilus influenzae
  • Professor Marjan van der Woude: Bacteria; Pathogenesis; Molecular Microbiology; Heterogeneity; Interdisciplinarity
  • Professor Paul Genever: Mesenchymal stem/stromal cells; Bone marrow; Skeletal biology; Regenerative medicine; Cell and molecular
  • Dr William Grey: Stem Cells; Proteostasis; Haematopoiesis; Leukaemia; Cancer
  • Dr Stuart Higgins: Bioelectronics; biomaterials; bioelectricity; cell interfaces; bioengineering
  • Professor David Kent: Leukaemia; Haematopoietic stem cells; Single cell biology; Physical biology of stem cells; Stem cell niche
  • Professor Roland Kröger: Ex situ and In situ Transmission Electron Microscopy; Bone and Teeth Structure; Composition and Properties; Raman Spectroscopy
  • Professor Betsy Pownall: Developmental biology; Embryology; Cell signalling; Genetics; Animal models of disease
  • Professor Jenny Southgate: Urothelium; Bladder cancer; Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine; Transcriptomics; Differentiation
  • Dr Chris Spicer: Biomaterials; Tissue engineering; Protein chemistry; Chemical biology
  • Dr Katrien Van Boxclaer: Skin drug delivery; topical formulation development; skin models; cutaneous leishmaniasis
  • Professor Alison Layton: Acne; Scarring; Clinical Trials; Antimicrobial resistance; Psycho-dermatology
  • Dr Clive McKimmie: Immunology; virology; vector biology; vascular biology; dermatology 
  • Dr Natalie Prow: Vaccinology; Skin delivery; Immunogenicity; Efficacy
  • Professor Tarl Prow: Transdermal drug delivery; Skin cancer detection; Cutaneous oncology; Nanoparticle drug delivery; Drug delivery devices
  • Dr Kim Robinson: innate immunity; skin biology; inflammatory skin disease; inflammasome; 3D skin organotypics
  • Dr Miko Yamada: molecular pathology in skin; clinical trials; transdermal delivery; imaging Biomarker discovery in skin diseases

Honorary members

YBRI has a number of honorary members who hold an honorary contract with the University of York, based at other institutions nationally and internationally.

Professor Musa is a professor of immunology and infectious diseases at the institute of Endemic Diseases. He is a physician specialist in internal and tropical medicine and clinical infectious diseases especially leishmaniasis.

He holds an honorary position with Hull York Medical School and is a chief clinical investigator of a jointly held Wellcome Trust Translation award and EDCTP grants to support leishmaniasis vaccine development.

Miss Radford is a consultant paediatric surgeon and urologist at Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, consultant paediatric urologist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and honorary senior clinical lecturer at Hull York Medical School.

Her research interests are in tissue engineering and epigenetic modification in disease. She completed her PhD with Professor Southgate and continues to collaborate with the Jack Birch Unit for Molecular Carcinogenesis.

Dr Wilkinson is Head of Virtual Drug Discovery at Medicines Discovery catapult; the UK's national facility for collaborative drug discovery research and development, dedicated to exploring and developing new approaches to the discovery and proof of targeted medicines, diagnostics and biomarkers.

He is initially aligned to YBRI through collaborative research in urology with Professor Southgate and is an Honorary Visiting Fellow in the Department of Biology. He is an industry representative on the Centre of Excellence in Mass Spectrometry and is interested in developing and supporting further collaborations in drug discovery aligned to the exploitation of innovative research at YBRI.

Professor Wilson is an emeritus professor in the Department of Biology. His research focus is on the disease Schistosomiasis. Schistosomiasis is a debilitating disease and infects up to 200 million people in many parts of South America, Africa and Asia. In severe cases, infection can be fatal.

He investigates the immune responses which result in protection against infection, to discover antigens which can be evaluated as vaccine candidates and to examine the processes which give rise to pathology.

Dr Isaacs is an emeritus reader in the Department of Biology. His research focus is on developmental biology, Specifically the expression of neuronal isoforms of src (n-srcs) in the childhood cancer, neuroblastoma, with the aim of developing novel approaches to treating neuroblastoma.

Fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signalling is his other area of interest. FGF signalling is required for cell lineage specification in normal development and cultured embryonic stem cells. Mis-regulated FGF signalling is associated with human disease, including cancer and skeletal dysplasia. He is investigating the mechanisms of transcriptional regulation by FGF signalling, with the aim of understanding how FGF regulates cell lineage specification and differentiation.

Dr Elliot is an emeritus Lecturer in the Department of Biology.  His research focus is on the fundamental causes of Parkinson’s disease (PD), using fly models of inherited PD to understand why (some dopaminergic) neurons die more than others.

Fly models of PD are robust and recapitulate the main features of the disease because flies share many genes with humans.

Dr Morgante is a consultant neonatal and paediatric surgeon at Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and is an honorary senior lecturer and associate researcher at Hull York Medical School.

She is passionate about clinical research in neonatal and paediatric surgery as well as basic science research, with particular interest in biomaterials, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Her PhD conducted at the Jack Birch Unit for Molecular Carcinogenesis focussed on acellular matrices for surgical application.

Philip is a physician scientist with a focus on precision medicine in the field of oncology drug development and patient stratification. He followed his initial training as a haematologist with 8 years’ research in Cambridge and Vancouver, focused on understanding genotype-phenotype correlations in haematological cancers and developing improved preclinical models of leukaemia. Since then, Philip has worked cross-sector in academic, healthcare and biotech roles with a unified goal of accelerating oncology drug development and ensuring that each patient receives the most suitable therapy.

Philip currently heads research and translational medicine at Step Pharma, who are developing novel therapeutic agents to treat patients with haematological cancers. He is also an honorary consultant at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, where he is part of team exploring innovative approaches to democratise access to comprehensive biomarker profiling and maximise clinical trial opportunities for those living with cancer. Philip’s research interests include the use of cancer genomic analysis to better understand disease behaviour and response to therapy, and the development of advanced preclinical cancer models based on human cells. Philip currently holds honorary research positions at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, UK, and the Mayo Clinic, Mn, USA.

Professor Smith’s research interests are in neglected tropical diseases, particularly the leishmaniases, parasitic diseases that are endemic in parts of the tropics and sub-tropics.

 

Professor Charles Lacey’s research interests are in clinical trials; Human challenge models; Human papillomavirus (HPV); Leishmania; and Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

Dr Azis Asghar's research interests are in COVID-19, neuroimaging, electroencephalography, virtual reality and cognition. 

Patrick is a consultant at Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust in the Department of Infectious Diseases. He undertook his clinical training at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, before moving on to a Clinical Research Fellowship at the Jenner Institute, University of Oxford.

Patrick collaborates with Professor Gavin Barlow across a range of areas including clinical trials such as BioDRIVE, observational studies around COVID and bloodstream infection  and multicentre vaccine trials for COVID and other respiratory viruses.  Patrick is also the Principal Investigator for four current multi-centre studies and supervises several academic doctors and medical student research projects. Ongoing projects include observational studies on quality of life after blood stream infection in people who inject drugs (alongside epidemiology and WGS of Staphylococcal blood stream infection), the extent of vaccine preventable illness as a cause of hospital admission and reasons for non-adherence to standardised tuberculosis drug regimens.