Research groups

The Lung Cancer Research Group are interested in translational research in lung cancer, the most common cause of cancer related death worldwide.

My lab focuses on the interactions between intestinal microbes and dying epithelial cells during injury and repair using both microbe and host-centric approaches.

My laboratory is interested in diagnostics innovation in the context of targeted and effective antibiotic therapy

Translational genomics in critical illness

My research focuses on understanding the signals that dictate macrophage behaviour in the healthy tissues and during successful tissue repair so that these signals can be promoted or targeted when macrophages begin to behave abnormally in inflammatory/fibrotic disease.

Abi's research programme aims to improve care for critically ill patients globally, by establishing mechanisms for continuous data driven evaluation, evidence generation and practice change within routine care. Abi's core work focuses on implementing and using the components of learning health systems to generate data driven research to address inequalities in critical care outcomes.

Chris specialises in kidney and liver histopathology, including transplantation pathology and developments thereof, though has a background of research evaluation of gene targeted mouse and rat models, cell cycle, apoptosis, DNA damage and repair responses with primary culture of hepatocytes, renal tubular epithelium and podocytes.

Tom Bird’s group studies abnormal liver regeneration particularly in liver cancer: hepatocellular carcinoma. We specialise in complex genetically engineered preclinical models developed around human drivers of this cancer.

Debby Bogaert's group focuses on investigating the physiology and pathophysiology of respiratory infections and inflammation from an ecological perspective.

Sara's research uses forefront techniques to investigate the molecular and genetic mechanisms leading to skin barrier disruption and inflammation - characteristics of atopic eczema.

Jenna Cash's research focuses on understanding the events that determine whether a skin wound will heal acutely or develop into a chronic non-healing wound.

Professor Chin's research interests are in the clinical and epidemiological aspects of childhood-onset epilepsies and convulsive status epilepticus.

I am the lead for clinical and translational research on COPD in Lothian. My interests are around early detection, phenotyping and endotyping of COPD patients.

Acute respiratory disease in children, particularly in relation to early viral infection, asthma, cystic fibrosis and rare lung disease. Early Phase clinical trials.

Kev Dhaliwal's group investigates Disruptive Technologies to Advance Respiratory Medicine and Critical Care.

He directs the Translational Healthcare Technologies Group (www.tht.ac.uk) with a focus on early phase experimental medicine and team science.

David Dockrell's group investigates macrophages in host defence against bacteria and viruses with emphasis on microbicide mechanisms and cell death paradigms in pulmonary infection and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

Dr Schneiders' research largely focusses on establishing the role of intrinsic mechanisms that contribute to the evolution of antibiotic resistance, fitness and survival in gram-negative bacteria.

Julia Dorin's research focus is on the function of host defence peptides by studying the consequence of their dysfunction in the mouse. Currently this approach is revealing their involvement in infertility, obesity and immunomodulation.

Rodger Duffin's research interests are focused on the mechanisms controlling inflammatory processes from initiation to resolution and also understanding the potential toxicology surrounding environmental and occupational nanoparticle exposures.

Elaine Dzierzak's lab aims to identify the molecules involved in the generation of haematopoietic stem cells (HSC) and to generate patient-specific HSCs for clinical cell replacement therapies to treat blood-related genetic diseases and leukaemia.

Joy Edwards-Hicks’ group investigates how age-related metabolic changes impact lymphocyte signalling and function.

Translational Liver Research

Yi Feng's group studies in vivo live imaging and genetic analysis of the earliest events of tumour initiation with the emphasis on the influence of inflammation to cancer progression in a zebrafish model.

David Ferenbach’s group is focussed on understanding the impact of senescence on the ageing and injured kidney - and how signalling from senescent cells contribute to multi-organ fibrosis, dysfunction and multi-morbidity.

We aim to revolutionize the current perception of ageing -as an inevitable process- and provide new tools to increase regeneration and promote greater ''health span'' for the next generation.

My research focuses on understanding how hormones control macrophage function in the womb and how this might affect women's reproductive health.

Investigating the pathogenesis of autoimmune rheumatic diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA), Sjögren’s syndrome, and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)

Christopher D Gregory's lab aims to understand the mechanisms by which apoptotic tumour cells condition the tumour micro-environment.

My laboratory focuses on the viral host factors determining pathogenicity and susceptibility.

Rashan's research focus is to improve care for critically ill patients globally by enabling a community of practice that uses a common data platform for continuous data driven evaluation, evidence generation and practice change.

Chris Haslett's group studies the cell biology of lung inflammation and scarring (particularly granulocyte biology and apoptosis), molecular imaging and clinical translational research.

Combination of clinical hepatology research especially portal hypertension and laboratory hepatocyte cell culture work concentrating on fat loading stress.

Neil Henderson's lab is interested in the cellular and molecular mechanisms that drive organ fibrosis, and also the pathways which are responsible for efficient wound healing and healthy tissue regeneration following injury.

Adam Hill's group develop strategies to break the vicious cycle of infection and inflammation in bronchiectasis.

Nik Hirani's group are interested in the mechanisms that regulate inflammation in the lung and how these can be modified so that inflammation resolves without scarring or damaging the lung.

Research Theme in a Nutshell: Science to medicine: Inflammatory triggers to tissue repair in IBD.

The use and development of single-molecule and super-resolution microscopy to answer biological questions, with a focus on neuroscience and neurodegeneration.

Jeremy Hughes' research focuses upon the role of a particular white blood cell called the macrophage in both kidney injury and healing.

Steve Jenkins is investigating the functional diversity of myeloid cells in tissue homeostasis and immune regulation, with a major focus on the mechanisms that maintain tissue resident macrophages under steady state and inflammatory conditions.

Tim Kendall is interested in the role of WT1 in liver fibrosis and regeneration, exploring myofibroblast heterogeneity throughout the entire disease process.

My research interests are in surgical robotics and image-guided therapies. Our projects typically involve the design and modelling of robotic systems for less invasive and/or more accurate surgery.

David Kluth studies the role of macrophages in acute kidney injury and glomerular inflammation.

Bharath Kumar is an intensive care doctor and researcher with a broad focus on improving outcomes from critical illness for patients in LMICs.

Wei-Yu Lu’s group studies the role of T cells in modulating liver epithelium regeneration.

Our lab is interested in the molecular mechanisms that drive the resolution of inflammation and how these processes engage successful tissue repair after injury.

We study rare genetic inflammatory conditions associated with lung inflammation to understand more about how these conditions occur, with the aim of identifying new therapeutic targets.

We are focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms that allow Candida albicans to successfully exploit the host and cause disease, and are investigating new strategies to combat antifungal drug resistance.

My research focuses on understanding how embryonic macrophages participate in steady-state haematopoiesis and organogenesis in mammalian embryos, and how their biological functions can contribute to the in utero onset of infant diseases.

Lorna Marson studies the inflammation in renal transplantation.

My research is focused on the effects of stroke on systemic immune function and how this contributes to complications of stroke recovery, including infection, gastrointestinal dysfunction and fatigue.

Studying microbial keratitis (infection of the cornea) through molecular characterisation of the disease and health-system mapping methodologies to enable scalable and responsible translation of public health interventions, diagnostic development and treatment strategies.

The major goal of my laboratory is to understand the roles of RNA-related pathways in human biology and disease.

My research interest is understanding how critical illness, in particular critical illness-induced bone marrow hypoxia, alters monopoeisis and whether this has long-term consequences for immunity in ICU survivors.

Damian’s research is driven by a vision to produce innovative solutions to difficult health and societal problems and challenging diseases. His entrepreneurial research strategy is based on a critical questioning approach, disease mechanism evaluation and seeking out and building the best teams to discover and deliver these solutions.

Damian’s current research includes understanding why people who have sustained significant inflammation have diminished overall survival and poor organ performance.

My goal is to contribute to the fields of immunology and ageing. I wish to investigate the role of senescence cell and immune cell interactions in regeneration in kidney and heart disease, and how anti-senescence treatments can play a part in improving outcomes for patients.

Clinical aspects of hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery.

Clare’s research focuses on understanding the role of CSF1R signalling during macrophage development.

Sandrine Prost studies multispectral imaging assessment of multiple markers on biopsy samples.

To study immune regulation of organ fibrosis with a view to identifying novel anti-fibrotic therapeutic approaches.

Adriano Rossi's lab aims to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms controlling inflammatory processes with a view to help develop novel therapies for chronic inflammatory diseases.

John Savill's aim is to understand mechanisms by which myeloid phagocyte clearance of cells dying by apoptosis serves to suppress inflammatory responses, both during resolution of inflammation and the endogenous suppression of inflammation threatened by "commensal" bacteria.

Jürgen Schwarze's group studies immune mechanisms of viral bronchiolitis and the role of virus induced immune modulation in allergy and asthma focusing on the innate/adaptive immune interface in the lung.

Principal Investigator

Manu's research programme aims to enable precision immunomodulation in critically ill adults with sepsis and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Manu's core hypothesis is that modifiable biological networks generate clinical phenotypes, and such networks could be determined by integration of clinical and immunobiology data.
Manu leads a globally unique precision medicine programme focussed on critically ill adults: The TRAITS Programme. See Link below.

Research interest in stem cells for musculoskeletal repair, musculoskeletal infection, novel cutting methodologies and impaired bone healing.

I'm interested in liver injury and recovery.

My laboratory aims to identify and characterise innate immune antiviral factors that inhibit virus replication. We are also interested in the development of broad-spectrum antiviral therapeutics. We study a range of viruses in these contexts including HIV, SARS-CoV-2, and influenza A virus.

Chair of Infectious Diseases

Marc Vendrell's lab studies dynamic activatable fluorophores for real-time imaging of key molecular events in cancer and inflammation.

My research interest is focussed on the molecular control of pro- and anti-inflammatory neutrophil functions in health and disease and neutrophil dysregulation in disease.

Sarah Walmsley's research focuses on the regulation of neutrophil apoptosis by hypoxia.

Chair of Medical and Veterinary Molecular Epidemiology

My research has two focuses: the effect of ultraviolet on systemic health; and on eczema.

Steve Wigmore's group are interested in the cell and molecular biology of organ preconditioning to reduce organ injury in surgery and transplantation.

My research focuses on understanding the role of neutrophil metabolic signalling pathways in sensing the extracellular microenvironment and driving neutrophil phenotype and function in the lung.

Translation of optical technologies, including fluorescence lifetime and Raman imaging, to enable minimally invasive characterisation of tissue and disease. Frugal innovation of advanced technologies for disease detection, and treatment.

Immune cell migration during inflammation and infection.

Chengcan Yao's lab studies the roles of bioactive lipids in modulation of immunity and inflammatory diseases in barrier tissues.