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 Peter Clayton

MAHSC Clinical Director & Chief Academic Officer, Health Innovation Manchester

Professor Clayton graduated from Manchester University Medical School in 1984 (Distinction in Paediatrics), having obtained a first class degree in Physiology & Pharmacology in 1981. He did his early paediatric training around Manchester before embarking on an academic career in Paediatric Endocrinology. His MD thesis was on “Growth Patterns after Neuroaxis Irradiation in Childhood”. He spent time at the University of Virginia, USA as a MRC Travelling Fellow in 1990/1 with his work there primarily directed at molecular endocrinology in the laboratory.

He returned to Manchester to establish a research group of both clinicians and scientists, working under the broad remit of investigating normal and abnormal growth from clinical, biochemical and molecular perspectives. He took up a Senior Lectureship in Child Health in 1994, and was promoted to Professor of Child Health and Paediatric Endocrinology in 2001. He was lead for the Division of Human Development in the Manchester Medical School from 2001-2007. He was Director of the Institute of Human Development in the Faculty of Medical & Human Sciences 2014-2016.

He has >200 publications on clinical and basic science aspects of paediatric endocrinology. He has served on the editorial boards of a number of endocrine journals (Hormone Research in Paediatrics, European Journal of Endocrinology and Clinical Endocrinology). He has been on the Councils of the Growth Hormone Research Society, the Society for Endocrinology UK, and the European Society of Paediatric Endocrinology, being Chair of the ESPE Corporate Liaison Board. He is currently Secretary-General for ESPE. He is on the medical committee of the UK Pituitary Foundation.

Professor Ian Bruce

MAHSC Research Lead & BRC Director & Academic Director, Health Innovation Manchester

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.

Amanda Risino

Academic Health Science Network Director & Chief Operating Officer, Health Innovation Manchester

As an Executive member of the Health Innovation Manchester Board and Chief Operating Officer, Amanda’s role is to build a culture of partnerships and collaboration to create a seamless pathway from discovery, science and industry engagement through to adoption and diffusion at pace and scale.

Amanda is passionate about transforming Health and Social Care by ensuring that strong relationships are built between clinicians, industry and academic partners to introduce cutting edge innovations, which will overall improve the Greater Manchester population’s health and wellbeing. She is proud of the contribution we make in HInM to improving the lives of patients and public. Amanda is a strong advocate of patient and public involvement in the co-design of health and social care. She strives for continuous improvement and is keen to deliver the best possible results for all concerned, to ensure that Manchester becomes a great place to live, work and grow old in.

Professor Peter Trainer

MAHSC Clinical Lead & Consultant Endocrinologist, Christie NHS Foundation Trust

Professor Trainer qualified in Edinburgh and continued his higher training in St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, Aberdeen, Utrecht (Netherlands) and Portland (Oregon, USA). He was a senior lecturer at Bart’s before becoming a consultant endocrinologist at The Christie in 1998.

Professor Trainer is an active leader in the medical community. He has served on the senior executive committees of the Society for Endocrinology (UK), the (American) Endocrine Society and the European Society for Endocrinology. He chaired the programme organizing committee for the European Congress of Endocrinology (2011) and the clinical programme of the American Endocrine congress in 2007. He has published extensively with over 150 papers in peer-reviewed journals. He is a sought-after lecturer and teacher and has served on the editorial boards of Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, Clinical Endocrinology, Treatments in Endocrinology, and GH and IGF Research. His prime areas of research are diseases of the pituitary and adrenal glands, particularly Cushing’s syndrome and acromegaly.

Professor Gillian Wallis

MAHSC Education Lead & Vice Dean for Teaching, Learning and Students, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health

Professor Gillian Wallis was appointed as Vice Dean for Teaching, Learning and Students in August 2016.

She was previously Associate Dean for Teaching, Learning and Students at the Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences from July 2015, and was also Director of Quality Assurance and Enhancement at Manchester Medical School. She formerly held the post of Associate Dean for Postgraduate Education for the Faculty from 2006 to 2010.

Professor Wallis is also the Education and Training Director for the Manchester Academic Health Science Centre.

She graduated with a PhD in Human Genetics at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, in 1987. She held postgraduate and postdoctoral research positions at the ETH in Zurich and the University of Washington, Seattle, before moving to Manchester in 1990.

She has since maintained her long term research interest in disorders of bone growth and development and was promoted to the position of Professor of Genetics in the Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences in 2008. In 2003, she graduated with an MA in Healthcare Ethics and Law from The University of Manchester.

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.

Professor Paul Townsend

MAHSC Industry Lead & Associate Dean for Business Engagement and Innovation, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, & BRC Industry Lead

Professor Paul Townsend is a fully tenured Principal Investigator, Associate Dean of Business Engagement, co-Director of Manchester Centre for Cellular Metabolism. He is Professor of Molecular Cell Biology, Division of Cancer Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, University of Manchester. He acta as one of the key university conduits for the CRUK Manchester Institute, Medicines Discovery Catapult and is the Industry Lead for the Manchester BRC and Manchester academic lead for Singapore. He is also a PI in the Manchester Cancer Research Centre and hold adjunct professorships in Athens and Singapore..

After reading for my doctorate at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (now CRUK) in London (1997), he undertook post-doctoral research at Imperial College London, Southampton and University College, London with associated research spells in Michigan and Frankfurt. He has helped lead a transformational change in an applied research focus and activity in Manchester, engendering a culture of multiple stakeholders including the NHS, academics, industry, innovative funding agencies, the public and patients.

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.