MAHSC Executive Team

Professor Graham Lord

MAHSC Executive Director & Vice President, The University of Manchester and Dean of Faculty for Biology, Medicine and Health

Graham Lord became Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health in February 2019.

He also holds the role of Executive Director of the Academic Health Science Centre as part of Health Innovation Manchester, and represents the University on the board of the Northern Health Science Alliance.

Professor Lord qualified in medicine from the University of Cambridge in 1991 and undertook a period of general clinical training as a junior doctor in Cambridge, Hammersmith, Oxford and at the Royal Brompton Hospital.

Following specialisation in nephrology, transplantation and general medicine at the Hammersmith Hospital, he undertook a period of research in molecular immunology at Imperial College London that led to a PhD in 2000, funded by an MRC Clinical Training Fellowship.

He was appointed as a Consultant in Nephrology and Transplantation at the Hammersmith in 2003. From 2003-2008, funded by an MRC Clinician Scientist award, he was a visiting scientist at Harvard University and then came back to the UK to become the Chair of Medicine at King’s College London.

He has built up a research group at King’s, investigating fundamental immune cell biology and the translation of this knowledge to the diagnosis and treatment of patients with organ transplant rejection and autoimmune diseases. As a consultant at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust he practices clinical nephrology with a particular interest in renal and pancreatic transplantation.

He led the successful application for the NIHR BRC at Guy’s and St Thomas’ and was appointed as Director of the Centre in 2012. In this role, he was responsible for the delivery of programmes of translational research and experimental medicine with a significant part of the Centre’s portfolio focussed on regenerative and personalised medicine, advanced therapeutics and informatics.

He was elected as an NIHR Senior Investigator in 2013 and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2016. He has sat on the NIHR Strategy Board and the National Clinical Research Network Co-ordinating Centre Board. He has also advised the UK Government as a member of the Expert Advisory Group of the Accelerated Access Review, representing the BRCs across the UK.

Professor Ian Bruce

Vice Dean for Health and Care Partnerships, FBMH, The University of Manchester & BRC Director

Professor Bruce is a Professor of Rheumatology and an NIHR Senior Investigator at the Arthritis Research UK Centre for Epidemiology, Centre for Musculoskeletal Research, Division of Musculoskeletal and DermatologicalSciences.

His clinical work is at The Kellgren Centre for Rheumatology, Manchester University Foundation Trust. He is also Director of the NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre and Centre Academic Lead for the NIHR Translational Research Partnership in Joint and Related Inflammatory Diseases.

Professor Caroline Sanders

MAHSC PPIEP Lead & Professor of Medical Sociology, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health

Caroline Sanders is Professor of Medical Sociology at the University of Manchester and Director for Public and Patient Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) at Health Innovation Manager. She has a professional background in nursing and expertise in primary care research focusing on patient experience and digital health.

Her work has included multiple participatory research projects, including co-design of digital health innovations. She leads the ‘Marginalised Groups (Patients & Carers)’ research theme within the NIHR GM Patient Safety Translational Research Centre (PSTRC), and leads research focused on person-centred care and complex health needs within the Centre for Primary Care and Health Services Research.

She is also PPIE lead for an NIHR Global Health Research Group focused on stroke care in India. Caroline also has extensive teaching experience at undergraduate and postgraduate level. She is currently the sociology lead for undergraduate medical students on the MBChB programme and has expertise in delivering qualitative research methods training for post-graduate research students.

Dr Lloyd Gregory

MAHSC Academic Partnerships Lead & Academic Partnerships Director, Health Innovation Manchester

Professor Dame Nicky Cullum

Applied Research Collaboration Director & Professor of Nursing, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health

Nicky was made a Dame for services to nursing research and wound care, in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, 2013. She was an Inaugural NIHR Senior Investigator (2008 – 2012, renewed 2013) and was made a Fellow of both the Academy of Medical Sciences and the American Academy of Nursing  in 2012.

She was awarded the European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel Achievement Award for contributions to evidence based medicine in 2006. Nicky was also a founding member of the Cochrane Collaboration; Coordinating Editor of the Cochrane Wounds Group since 1995, she served on the Coordinating Editors’ Executive (2004 – 2009) and again since 2014.

Professor Darren Ashcroft

Patient Safety Research Collaboration (PSRC) Director

Professor Darren Ashcroft graduated in Pharmacy (BPharm) from the University of Nottingham and was awarded an MSc in Clinical Pharmacy (with Distinction) from the Queen’s University of Belfast and a PhD from the University of Aston. In 2002, he was appointed as Senior Clinical Lecturer at the University of Manchester. He was subsequently promoted to Reader in Medicines Usage and Safety in 2007 and Foundation Professor of Pharmacoepidemiology in 2010.

He is Director of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Greater Manchester Patient Safety Translational Research Centre (GMPSTRC). He is an Honorary Professor at the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, and the University of Hong Kong. As the GMPSTRC’s Director, he leads the integration of an extensive programme of innovative research to improve patient safety across partner NHS Trusts, primary care networks, and the Universities of Manchester and Nottingham.

As well as his academic and clinical work, Darren is involved in a range of activities for the NIHR, National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the UK National Health Service more widely. He sits on the Board of the NIHR School for Primary Care Research (SPCR) providing strategic leadership for research and capacity building to increase the evidence base for effective primary care practice.

For over 25 years, Darren has been a member of numerous local, regional, and national committees focused on medication usage and safety within the NHS. He regularly provides expert advice to the Department of Health and Social Care, including actions to improve medication safety following the third World Health Organization (WHO) Global Patient Safety Challenge “Medication Without Harm”, and to reduce overprescribing in the NHS. In 2017, he was appointed to the Pharmacovigilance Expert Advisory Group (PEAG) at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and routinely provides expert advice on the public health importance of new safety signals and how these risks should be managed.

Professor Jacky Smith

Clinical Research Facility (CRF) Director

Jacky Smith graduated in Medicine from Manchester University in 1992 and continued her training around the North West region in General and Respiratory Medicine. She undertook a PhD in the ‘Measurement of Cough’, awarded in 2004. This involved close collaboration with computer scientists and fuelled an interest in acoustics and signal processing. After completing specialist training she was funded to continue her research by a Stepping Stones Award (Manchester University) and then an MRC Clinician Scientist Award. Her MRC funding allowed here to spend a year studying the neurobiology of cough with Prof Brendan Canning, Johns Hopkins, Balitmore, MD.

She also led the development of a novel method for semi-automated cough detection, that has been licensed to and commercialised by Vitalograph Ltd. This cough monitoring system has changed the standards by which novel cough therapies are evaluated in regulatory clinical trials and has facilitated the discovery of a new class of efficacious anti-tussive therapy, P2X3 antagonists .

In addition to continuing work developing new endpoints in cough monitoring, her main research interests lie in understanding the mechanisms underlying cough in respiratory diseases and the testing of novel anti-tussive therapies. Her research is funded by a Wellcome Investigator in Science Award and through the NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre Respiratory Theme. She also collaborates widely with the pharmaceutical industry.

Information about the cough clinic and clinical research can be found at www.combatmycough.com

Dr Andrew Ustianowski

MAHSC Clinical Lead & Deputy Clinical Director in Greater Manchester Clinical Research Network (CRN)

Dr Ustianowski is joint National Specialty Lead for Infection at NIHR Clinical Research Network. He is also the Clinical Lead for the NIHR COVID Vaccine Research Programme.

Dr Ustianowski is Consultant in infectious diseases and tropical medicine at the Regional Infectious Diseases unit at North Manchester General Hospital and the Deputy Clinical Director in Greater Manchester Clinical Research Network. Prior to being appointed to this position, Dr Ustianowski was the Infection Industry Lead for the CRN Specialty.