In light of the recent COVID 19 pandemic, I have been using my expertise in innate immunity signalling and inflammation to initiate new research areas. In collaboration with several others from Glasgow University, Lincoln University and Oxford University, we have developed a new statsistical methods and artifical intellegence to predict who has the virus SARS CoV2 at a very early stage of infection using only simple blood tests. My research until now has been as an in vitro pharmacologist working on numerous projects involved with molecular mechanisms that underpin numerous disease states, such as nuclear receptors involved in inflammation.

My background has been to study vasoactive compounds that control vascular function, and over the past couple of years I have worked in multi-disciplinary groups to screen for drugs that control pancreatic diseases, both diabetes and cancer.

With the significant changes occuring in our understanding of the COVID 19 pandemic, the majority of new projects on offer will be focused on this new area of research. It is apparent that in order to prevent future waves of disease that will occur from novel viruses, it is important to understand how our innate immunity is best equiped to both recognise new pathogens and also respond in a manner that is not deleterious to the individual. 

A large proportion of prevous research has focused on how nuclear receptors control transcription and thus control how cells respond on the long term to pathogens and chronic disease states.

Projects on offer involve:

1. Developing early diagnosis tools for highly pathogenic viruses such as SARS CoV2

2. Understanding how nuclear receptors may be manipulated to ensure a rapid response to new pathogens without harming the patient

3. Changing cell function using nuclear receptor agonists to manipulate human blood derived progenitor cells to create new organs such as lung and deepening our understanding of how PPARβδ receptors control inflammation and disease. 

Two other in vitro projects in collaboration with other universities; to isolate or identify hit compounds to control diabetes and pancreatic cancer. One set of compounds have been isolated form natural plant products from Gabon (the extract is already in use to control diabetes in humans), while the other screening cascade involves compounds have been designed via computitonal chemsitry Collaborators: Hertfordshire University and IPHAMETRA institute, Gabon.