This is a huge achievement and reflects the undoubted excellence of their research achievements and also their commitment to teaching and ‘good citizenship’ within the department and beyond.
Prof Leanne Hodson leads a team focusing on understanding liver fat metabolism, as perturbations in this have the potential to impact widely on metabolic health. Accumulation of fat within the liver underlies the spectrum of conditions known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and this is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. By understanding the pathways involved in liver fat metabolism, this may lead to interesting new therapeutic approaches to prevent and/or treat NAFLD. Leanne is currently the Graduate Advisor in OCDEM and Chair of the RDM Career Development Committee. She is a BHF Senior Basic Science Fellow.
Prof Adam Mead leads a team investigating how the normal haematopoietic stem/progenitor hierarchy is disrupted during the development of myeloid malignancies. The overarching aim of their research group is to improve the management of myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN), chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) and related conditions through better characterisation and therapeutic targeting of malignant stem and progenitor cell populations. Adam is a Consultant Haematologist and an MRC Senior Clinical Fellow.
Prof Gary Ford’s research focuses on developing and evaluating treatments that can reduce brain damage in the first few hours after stroke, and developing better processes of care to deliver for stroke patients. Gary is a Consultant Stroke Physician and Chief Executive Officer of the Oxford Academic Health Science Network.
Prof Damian Tyler leads a team that uses MRI/MRS to study cardiac structure, function and metabolism in normal and diseased hearts. They are developing the technique of Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (DNP) for application to the study of cardiac metabolism in the human heart, which will revolutionize spectroscopy using MR. Damian is a BHF Senior Basic Science Fellow. He is also a Tutorial Fellow in Medicine at Somerville College.