Full team list

Inflammation and Immunity is a fantastic opportunity to improve the quality of data recording and the use of data to better respiratory outcomes for people in the UK. We will then expand our learning to other diseases.

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Programme Theme(s): Describe, Predict, Intervene & Evaluate

Professor Jenni Quint is one of Inflammation and Immunity’s Co-lead investigators, leading our programme alongside Professor Sir Aziz Sheikh.  

A Professor of Respiratory Epidemiology at Imperial College London, Jenni’s goal is to enable better and more timely data linkage to answer important questions around respiratory disease. 

She has unparalleled, specialist knowledge on using various sources of de-identified, routinely collected electronic healthcare records (EHRs) data in England to support research into the UK’s most common respiratory diseases. This includes COPD, asthma, interstitial lung disease, bronchiectasis and COVID-19. 

Jenni’s ambition and vision are vital to our success. She recognises that whilst data curation and accessibility is fundamental to achieving our aims, maximising the quality, inclusivity and usage of these data is key to driving further innovation and development. 

Jenni also leads the Respiratory EHR group which has developed a robust understanding of the strengths and limitations of using routinely collected health data for research purposes, particularly diagnostic coding practices in clinical settings and how these might then affect research outcomes. 

She is also the primary supervisor to two of our PhD students, Zak Gassasse and Harley Kwok, as well as affiliated PhD student Rong Ding. 

Read Jenni's professional profile 

Relevant links

Find out more about the Respiratory EHR group 

We aim to utilise the UK’s outstanding health and health-related data asset, and work with members of the public, colleagues and partners across the UK, to provide key policy and clinical insights that will improve respiratory outcomes for the UK’s population.

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Programme Theme(s): Describe, Predict, Intervene & Evaluate

Professor Sir Aziz Sheikh is one of Inflammation and Immunity’s Co-Lead investigators, leading our programme alongside Professor Jenni Quint. 

Based at the Usher Institute, The University of Edinburgh, Aziz is a leading clinical respiratory epidemiologist with a special interest in the interface between health data science and policy.  

His current work focuses on laying the foundations necessary to create learning health systems capable of using linked, multi-dimensional data to support and evaluate policymaking, health system improvements and the personalisation of care. 

Outside of the programme, Aziz is the Director of the Usher Institute, and Dean of Data for The University of Edinburgh, as well as the Director of the Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research (AUKCAR) and a Research Director of Health Data Research UK. 

He has substantial experience working across a range of research areas including asthma, allergy and in leveraging the potential of health information technology and data science to transform the delivery of care and improve population health. 

Aziz enjoys collaborations with academic colleagues across the globe and works closely with policymakers both in the UK and internationally. He has, together with colleagues, held research grants of more than £100m and publishes regularly in the world's foremost journals. 

Read Aziz’s professional profile 

Useful links 

Find out more about AUK CAR 

Learn more about Aziz’s projects and outputs 

View Aziz’s ResearchGate profile 

 I am working with the co-Directors and wider team to ensure that the vision for the Driver Programme is delivered effectively.

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Dr Wendy Inglis Humphrey is Inflammation and Immunity’s Programme Manager, and oversees the day-to-day running of our programme. She is based at the Usher Institute, the University of Edinburgh.

Wendy’s strategic operational oversight is essential for keeping us on track. Meticulous and down-to-earth, she is an expert forward planner who knows how to get the job done. Her extensive knowledge of finances, recruitment, research support and governance, as well as her impeccable efficiency, all help to ensure that we fulfil our objectives in a timely manner. 

Wendy’s responsibilities include: 

• Working closely with the co-Directors to lead the programme. 

• Liaising with all partner institutions on spend, resourcing, logistics and deliverables. 

• Ensuring an open dialogue with HDR UK on successes, lessons learned, and ongoing challenges. 

Read Wendy’s professional profile 

I hope to establish common practices and technical solutions across Inflammation and Immunity to increase the efficiency of UK-wide study, as well as enhancing the tools and systems available to researchers in order to drive impactful science.

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Programme Theme(s): Data Infrastructure & Science

Chris Orton is Inflammation and Immunity’s Technical Lead based within Population Data Science at Swansea University Medical School.

Although vast, vibrant and brimming with potential, the UK’s health data landscape is a highly fragmented environment. Research groups operating within it often face complex and sensitive challenges around data security, availability, access and linkage.

Thankfully, Chris has an expert view of these matters. As Technical Lead he provides invaluable insights into practical, technical solutions that will allow us to navigate this landscape and connect with its key players – data custodians, Trusted Research Environments and other research groups. After countless experiences working with such groups on the regional, national and international level, Chris understands that these ambitions depend on extensive negotiation, collaboration and cooperation.

His guidance will help ensure that Inflammation and Immunity:

• Is soundly rooted within and progresses proportionately across the four UK nations;
• Is at the forefront of technical developments that increase the efficiency of UK-wide study;
• Generates UK-wide results;
• Delivers impactful outputs, observations and understanding of respiratory and wider inflammatory and immunity-based conditions to the public eye; and
• Influences care providers and government policy

Outside of the programme, Chris works within a world-leading research and data infrastructure team at Swansea University who support thousands of researchers worldwide. They are embedded in several national initiatives in improving data access, technical capability for research, and bridging the gap between policy-facing research and the tools needed to undertake such work. In particular, Chris manages several research initiatives involving the SAIL Databank and Secure eResearch Platform (SeRP).

Read Chris Orton’s professional profile

Relevant links

What are Trusted Research Environments?

Find out more about Population Data Science

Find out more about SAIL Databank

Find out more about SeRP

Definitions

Trusted Research Environments (TREs)

• Highly secure computing environments provide remote access to health data for approved researchers to use for research across various scientific domains, research which ultimately can save and improve lives. 

The new research program on inflammation and immunity is truly groundbreaking, uniting efforts across the four UK nations and exploring these critical health areas throughout the lifecourse. This initiative is not only set to advance our understanding but also promises to build significant capacity with numerous PhD studentships and internships, fostering the next generation of scientific leaders.

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Programme Theme(s): Describe, Intervene & Evaluate

Dr Ian Sinha is Inflammation and Immunity’s Lead researcher for Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool.

A Consultant Respiratory Paediatrician at Alder Hey and an Honorary Associate Professor in Child Health at the University of Liverpool, Ian’s expertise and areas of interest focus on paediatric asthma, neonatal lung diseases, and the social determinants of respiratory health, particularly the impact of poverty on child health.

Ian has substantial experience in understanding and addressing health inequalities, including developing frameworks to address these issues in children and supporting ongoing advocacy work at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. 

Ian is dedicated to improving child health outcomes and holds several prominent national roles, including serving as the clinical lead for the Children and Young People's Workstream of the National Asthma and COPD Audit Programme and as a specialty advisor for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) on asthma guidelines. Leveraging these networks and his experience, Ian is working closely with the Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) team within Inflammation and Immunity, to develop a 4-nation paediatric PPI working group which will help inform project development and ensure health data are used appropriately to improve health outcomes for young people and their families.

Respiratory conditions are sadly very common in Wales and the wider UK. This is a great opportunity to harness the full potential of the UK’s extensive health data. This will allow us to learn who is most at risk and how environmental factors impact on people. We can use health data to target and test interventions to improve respiratory health initially and reduce inequalities in care.

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Programme Theme(s): Describe, Training & Capacity Building

Professor Gwyneth Davies is both Inflammation and Immunity’s Lead researcher for Wales and  Training & Capacity Building theme lead. 

A Professor of Respiratory Medicine at Swansea University Medical School, Gwyn’s expertise lies in understanding the epidemiology, underlying ‘omics’ and health inequalities of respiratory diseases – particularly Asthma. She has substantial experience collaborating with a range of UK-based and international partners.

Her research currently focuses on improving respiratory health to reduce inequalities in care, by using health data to target and evaluate health interventions. Her work

Outside of the programme, Gwyn is also the founding Director of the Wales Asthma Observatory within the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. In 2020, Gwyn was recognised for her contributions towards improving NHS care and services when she received the Bronze Clinical Excellence Award from the Advisory Committee on Clinical Excellence Awards (2019-2024).

Read Gwyn's professional profile

Read Gwyn's ResearchGate profile

Relevant links

Find out more about  SAIL Databank

Find out more about Wales Asthma Observatory

Definitions

Epidemiology

• The branch of medicine which focuses on the occurrence, distribution and possible control of diseases other factors relating to health

Omics

• A term used to reference several fields of biology which aim to identify, describe and quantify specific biomolecules and molecular processes involved in the formation and function of cells and tissues. For example, genomics focuses on the structure and function of an organism’s genome – it's entire set of genes.

Find out more about omics

The UK is already a global leader in the use of routine clinical data sources to deliver patient benefit – this programme provides a unique opportunity to further enhance that capability in respiratory and other inflammatory diseases to address future critical research questions.

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Programme Theme(s): Predict 

A Professor of Respiratory Medicine at Queen’s University Belfast, Liam’s expertise lies in the clinical assessment and characteristics of “difficult asthma”- asthma that is difficult to control with standard of care treatments. This includes identifying and managing poor adherence to therapy, treatment resistant disease and often other comorbid disease which can make clinical assessment challenging. 

Liam is particularly interested in using disease stratification - separating a patient population into distinct groups based on the different disease characteristics they possess - to come up with personalised treatment approaches and interventions for individuals with severe asthma 

He hopes that by facilitating the widespread linkage of secondary and tertiary care datasets to primary care records across the UK, our programme will make it easier for researchers to gain a better understanding of: 

• Disease trajectory - how a condition, disease or illness changes over time; 

• Comorbid disease - conditions, diseases or illnesses that occur at the same time; 

• Benefits of early intervention with target-specific therapies; 

• Predictors of treatment response; and 

• Barriers that delay or prevent access to healthcare 

Liam is also the primary supervisor of Inflammation and Immunity PhD student, Amy Shackleford.

Outside of Inflammation and Immunity, Liam also leads RASP-UK (the Medical Research Council’s Medical Research Council UK Refractory Stratification Programme) who have substantial experience in developing both Phase II and Phase III clinical trials, from concept and design through to data analysis. 

Read Liam Heaney’s professional profile 

Relevant links

Find out more about RASP-UK 

Find out more about the levels of healthcare in the NHS

Definitions

Phase II clinical trials

• Studies that investigate the effectiveness of an experimental drug or treatment on a particular disease or condition. It usually involves 100+ volunteers and can last from several months to a couple of years. 

Phase III clinical trials 

• Studies that compare the safety and effectiveness of a treatment to the one(s) that are currently available (the standard treatment). It usually involves hundreds or thousands of volunteers over 1 – 4 years. 

Primary care

• A patient receives care from their GP, community pharmacy, dentist or eye doctor 

Secondary care

• A patient’s primary care provider refers them for specialist care for someone with more specific expertise in whatever health issue you are experiencing. For example, a cardiologist  or oncologist. 

Tertiary care 

• A higher level of care that requires highly specialized equipment and expertise, including complex treatments and surgeries. For example, dialysis for kidney disease and neurosurgery. 

I see the health data landscape in Northern Ireland to be lagged behind other regions of the UK. I'm hopeful that the program can help close that gap and provide a lasting impact on respiratory research in the country.

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Programme Theme(s): Describe, Predict 

Dr John Busby is Inflammation and Immunity’s Deputy Northern Ireland Lead, based at the Centre for Public Health in Queen’s University Belfast. 

A Senior Lecturer in Medical Statistics, John will lead on much of the data analysis conducted with the Honest Broker Service, a Trusted Research Environment in Northern Ireland. He will also be a key contributor in our discussions on how we can align our research methods across the four nations. 

Although he works across a broad range of research areas, John has developed a particular interest in severe asthma. More specifically, he is keen to explore: 

1. Disparities in care, such as ethnic, gender, socioeconomic-based inequalities 

2. How treatment pathways can be optimized. This includes identifying when novel biologic therapy should be offered to sever asthma patients, and whether more personalized treatment can be offered to patients suffering an acute exacerbation to limit the adverse effects of strong medications. 

John is hopeful that our programme can help overcome one of the major limitations faced in health data research. Patients living with chronic conditions, such as severe asthma, rely on a combination of primary, secondary and specialist care. Producing UK wide datasets by linking together data from these three sources will help streamline the process of finding, accessing and utlising these data for research. 

Outside of the programme, John is the lead statistician for the UK severe asthma registry, the largest registry of its kind worldwide, and contributes to international collaborations in severe asthma including the International Severe Asthma Registry (ISAR). 

Read John’s professional profile 

Relevant links 

What are TREs? 

More about the stages of care 

Definitions 

Primary care 

• Care a patient receives from their GP, community pharmacy, dentist or eye doctor. 

Secondary care 

• A patient’s primary care provider refers them for specialist care for someone with more specific expertise in whatever health issue you are experiencing. For example, a cardiologist  or oncologist. 

Tertiary care 

• A higher level of care that requires highly specialized equipment and expertise, including complex treatments and surgeries. For example, dialysis for kidney disease and neurosurgery. 

Trusted Research Environments 

• Highly secure computing environments provide remote access to health data for approved researchers to use for research across various scientific domains, research which ultimately can save and improve lives. 

I will work together with patients and members of the public to support the driver programme to produce research that matters.

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Programme Theme(s): Patient and Public Involvement

Dr Tracy Jackson is Inflammation and Immunity’s Patient & Public Involvement (PPI) Lead, tasked with creating and implementing our PPI strategy. She is supported by our Research Administrator, Lily Quinlan.

Dedicated and highly experienced, Tracy’s comprehensive approach to PPI will help ensure that projects within our programme produce high-quality, impactful research that is relevant to the people it is meant to benefit.   

To do this, Tracy will identify and facilitate opportunities for the patient, public and community members to share their insights and be meaningfully involved across all areas of our programme. This includes collaborating with our two Lay Leads – Anna Grosse and Karen Mooney – in attending all steering group (senior management) meetings, ensuring that a culture of listening to, and acting upon, public voices begins from the top-down.  

Tracy will also coordinate with existing PPI groups and networks to run a range of activities that will shape our research, as well as engage with a wider audience to highlight the work being carried out. 

Read Tracy's professional profile 

“I see PPIE as the touchstone within health data research to ensure and secure the integrity of purpose, process and public engagement.” 

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Programme Theme(s): Patient and Public Involvement

Karen Mooney is a member of our Steering Group and one of our Lay Leads whose public voice will help shape our programme.  

Her experience with Crohn’s disease fuels her interest in chronic inflammatory conditions and their impact on overall health and well-being.  She wants to see how the programme can help improve patient care and outcomes. 

Passionate and inquisitive, Karen challenges our team to think about the broader implications of our research, how we talk about our findings and how we engage with patients and the public to develop a collaborative approach to future research.  

A qualified Human Resources professional, Karen retired from Local Government due to ill health. She has since delivered health awareness training in areas of deprivation and has served as a Lay Chair of the Patients Group of the RCGPNI. Previous Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) participation includes projects such as CO-CONNECT, GRAIMATTER & COALESCE, and co-chairing a workshop at the first Advance Pain Discovery Platform (APDP) conference.  

Aside from her interest in health, a growing involvement in the Arts led Karen to host community radio and television programmes and publish her poetry with The Hedgehog Poetry Press.

Relevant links

Find out more about APDP 

Find out more about COALESCE 

Find out more about CO-CONNECT 

Find out more about GRAIMATTER 

Visit The Hedgehog Poetry Press 

I hope that the Inflammation and Immunity Driver Programme can lay the foundation for an inclusive and combined approach towards future research between members of the public, patients, academics & researchers.

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Programme Theme(s): Patient and Public Involvement

Miss Anna Grosse is one of Inflammation and Immunity’s PPI Lay Leads. She works with Dr Tracy Jackson and Karen Mooney to ensure that patient and public voices are meaningfully integrated across our research portfolio and embedded within our research culture. 

As a person living with asthma, Anna provides our programme with invaluable insight based on her lived experience. Anna’s perspective on what it is like to manage and receive treatment for a chronic inflammation-mediated condition will help in shaping our research aims, methods, approaches to external engagement and dissemination. 

Curious by nature, Anna is eager to know more about research related to respiratory disorders. She is also very keen to explore and learn more about the emotional, physical, psychological and social aspects of living with a chronic condition. 

Prior to joining our programme, Anna was a Children and Young People (CYP) PPI member with the Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research, an experience she found both interesting and enjoyable. She hopes that her experiences and knowledge gained from both her previous and ongoing PPI projects will allow her to assist with, and be of benefit to, future research. She is currently studying Psychology at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. 

I hope to be able to provide insights into how and why sex inequalities in respiratory disease exist to ultimately improve patient care.

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Programme Theme(s): Describe, Data Infrastructure & Science

Dr Hannah Whittaker is an Inflammation and Immunity Research Fellow based at Imperial College London. She sits on our steering group as an Early Career Researchers (ECR) representative, and also the secondary supervisor to PhD student Zak Gassasse.

Hannah’s research interests lie in the sex and gender differences in respiratory disease. She is currently investigating whether sex-related inequalities exist in people living with chronic respiratory diseases. To do this, she is looking at incidence, exacerbation and mortality rates of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma and interstitial lung disease by sex, as well as other inequalities. This will form the basis of further work which will determine why these inequalities exist and how we can reduce this gap. 

Hannah’s expertise lies in working with different types of electronic healthcare data and manipulating large quantities of data. For example, working with data on over 64 million people. 

She has received a BSc (Hons) from Edinburgh University in Biomedical Sciences (Pharmacology), a MSc in Epidemiology from UCL and a PhD in Epidemiology from Imperial College London. Her PhD was on lung function decline in people with COPD. 

Read Hannah’s professional profile 

Programme Theme(s): Describe, Training & Capacity Building

Project title: An investigation of the socioeconomic drivers of inequalities in asthma in Wales with a focus on young people 

Cedric Burden is an Inflammation and Immunity PhD student based at Swansea University; he also acts as the programme’s PhD Representative. 

Cedric’s PhD project explores how socioeconomic factors may drive inequalities in asthma care in Wales, specifically among young people. The aim is to generate the information required to better understand and predict severe asthma outcomes, allowing for more targeted, individual-level interventions to be planned. 

He has a background in Physics, Theoretical Physics and secondary education, with a particular interest in using data interrogation and modelling to improve public health. 

Supervisor(s):  

• Professor Gwyneth Davies, Wales Lead (Swansea University) 

• Professor Rich Fry (Swansea University) 

• Dr Mohammad Al Sallakh, Research Fellow (Swansea University) 

• Professor Jenni Quint, Co-Lead Investigator (Imperial College London) 

Lily Quinlan is Inflammation and Immunity’s Research Administrator. 

She works closely with Dr Wendy Inglish Humphrey to ensure smooth running of project operations. This includes scheduling and coordinating meetings, internal communications and budget support. 

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Programme Theme(s): Describe, Predict, Data Infrastructure & Science

Dr Adriana Machado is an Inflammation and Immunity Research Fellow based at Queen’s University Belfast. She is an epidemiologist with expertise in dataset management and statistical analysis using Stata Software. 

Her research interests include sleep, rest-activity rhythm, inequalities and population-based studies. Working within a new field – inflammation-mediated conditions - presents Adriana with a new and interesting challenge. 

View Adriana’s ResearchGate profile 

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Programme Theme(s): Predict, Data Infrastructure & Science

Dr Constantinos Kallis is one of Inflammation and Immunity’s Research Fellows based in Imperial College London. 

Holding a PhD in statistics, Constantinos’ research interests lie in analysing routinely collected clinical data related to patients with respiratory disease. He has extensive, high-level expertise in data analysis and data curation, which he uses to support and facilitate the work of our Data and Infrastructure cross-cutting theme.  

Read Constantinos’ profile 

I am excited to contribute to advancing knowledge that will improve patient outcomes.

Programme Themes: Describe, Predict 

Dr Karen Jeffrey is one of Inflammation and Immunity’s Research Fellows, based at the Usher Institute at The University of Edinburgh. Holding a PhD in Political Economy, Karen is a quantitative researcher with an interest in statistics, digital health and data science. She also possesses expertise in working with Scottish health data. 

Within the programme, Karen is collaborating with partners from across the UK on several research projects. This includes: 

• Predictive modelling to improve our understanding of who is most likely to benefit from biological agents as a treatment for severe asthma 

• Conducting an analysis to improve our understanding of inequalities in asthma outcomes across Scotland, England, and Wales 

Her enthusiasm for collaboration is not only restricted to academic partners. Karen also holds a deep appreciation for the role, importance and value of Patient and Public Involvement in health data research. 

Unimpeded respiration is a right, not a privilege.

Programme Theme(s): Describe, Training & Capacity Building

Dr Mohammad Alsallakh is an Inflammation and Immunity Research Fellow based at Swansea University. He is also the Deputy Lead of our Training & Capacity Building theme.

Mohammad is a clinically trained health data scientist with an interest in respiratory epidemiology and reproducible research. He is especially passionate about studying socioeconomic inequalities in asthma treatment and care. 

In the UK, people with higher socioeconomic deprivation are disproportionately affected by serious asthma outcomes. This is both unfair to these individuals and potentially costly to healthcare systems. Mohammad’s research, in collaboration with colleagues across the UK, uses routinely collected healthcare data to investigate the drivers, patterns, and trends of asthma inequalities. He aims to quantify the magnitude and economic impact of these inequalities and track their changes. These findings will have the potential to inform the development of cost-effective strategies to improve asthma outcomes, especially for those most affected by them. 

Read Mohammad’s professional profile 

By integrating AI with machine learning and cloud computing, I strive to create personalised healthcare strategies that are both effective and accessible.

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Programme Theme(s): Describe

Dr Olufemi Olajide is one of Inflammation and Immunity’s Data Scientists, based at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital NHS Trust. He is a qualified dentist, and the current Head of Data Science at the Alder Hey Innovation Centre. 

Olufemi is a healthcare AI expert with a PhD in Risk Modelling and Epidemiology, a master's in public health Analysis, and various certifications in data science and project management. 

His research interest lies in using AI to mitigate healthcare disparities, especially in paediatric care. In his projects, Olufemi aims to develop predictive models that facilitate early detection of diseases in children from diverse backgrounds, especially those from underserved communities. 

He seeks to democratise health access and contribute to the global effort of eradicating healthcare inequalities, creating a healthier, more productive society, where every child can achieve optimal health outcomes, regardless of their socio-economic status. 

The anticipated impact of his work is multifaceted. For example, it is expected / has the potential to: 

• Improve health outcomes by providing early interventions for children who might otherwise have limited access to healthcare services 

• Reduce the overall burden on healthcare systems through cost-effective disease management 

• Enhance the privacy and security of patient data by generating synthetic datasets 

• Inform future research by providing a framework for AI application in healthcare 

• Serve as a catalyst for policy changes towards a more equitable healthcare system 

Olufemi is exceptionally skilled in programming languages such as Python and R, essential for managing and analyzing large datasets He also has expertise in machine learning frameworks, including TensorFlow and PyTorch, which will be essential in developing predictive models capable of uncovering insights from complex health data. His experience with cloud computing platforms like Azure also enables him to take advantage of the latest in technology to enhance research scalability and impact. 

How does synthetic data help improve privacy and security? 

Using synthetic data enhances privacy and security by creating artificial datasets that mimic real-world data without containing any personally identifiable information. This approach allows healthcare data to be shared freely without risking privacy breaches or violating data protection regulations.  

Synthetic data serves as a protective layer, while still providing valuable insights for modelling or analyses. 

I hope to be able to provide insights into how and why sex inequalities in respiratory disease exist to ultimately improve patient care.

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Programme Theme(s): Describe, Data Infrastructure & Science, Training & Capacity Building

Dr Hannah Whittaker is an Inflammation and Immunity Research Fellow based at Imperial College London. She sits on our steering group as an Early Career Researchers (ECR) representative, and also the secondary supervisor to PhD student Zak Gassasse.

Hannah’s research interests lie in the sex and gender differences in respiratory disease. She is currently investigating whether sex-related inequalities exist in people living with chronic respiratory diseases. To do this, she is looking at incidence, exacerbation and mortality rates of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma and interstitial lung disease by sex, as well as other inequalities. This will form the basis of further work which will determine why these inequalities exist and how we can reduce this gap. 

Hannah’s expertise lies in working with different types of electronic healthcare data and manipulating large quantities of data. For example, working with data on over 64 million people. 

She has received a BSc (Hons) from Edinburgh University in Biomedical Sciences (Pharmacology), a MSc in Epidemiology from UCL and a PhD in Epidemiology from Imperial College London. Her PhD was on lung function decline in people with COPD. 

Read Hannah’s professional profile 

I have always felt passionate about addressing the socioeconomic inequalities I see in my clinical practice. I want to use my skills to contribute to developing new knowledge around how we can adapt clinical services to address the social determinants of health for young children.

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Programme Theme(s): Describe

Project title: Linking socioeconomic exposures associated with deprivation to early years respiratory outcomes using existing and routinely collected health and non-health data.

Dr Alice Lee is an Inflammation and Immunity PhD student based at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital NHS Trust.

Alice’s PhD project aims to use linked health and non-health data to better understand the drivers of early years respiratory health inequalities across Cheshire & Mersey. This includes:

• Assessing the impact of socioeconomic deprivation on bronchiolitis and wheeze for 0-3 year olds;
• Identifying which socioeconomic risk factors have the largest population-level impacts in different communities;
• Identifying opportunities for community-level primary and secondary care prevention

Outside of the programme Alice is a paediatric trainee currently working as a clinical research and innovation fellow at Alder Hey Children's Hospital. Her research interests lie in health inequalities and paediatric respiratory health, which she’s pursued throughout her training. This includes completing an MA in Humanitarianism and Conflict Response, undertaking a population health fellowship with Health Education England. After completing her PhD, Alice plans to complete her training in paediatric respiratory medicine.

Supervisor(s):

• Dr Dan Hawcutt, Alder Hey Children’s Hospital NHS Trust, University of Liverpool
• Professor Ian Sinha, Inflammation and Immunity Steering Group member; Alder Hey Children’s Hospital NHS Trust, University of Liverpool

I hope to refine my programming abilities so I can become a more efficient researcher who can contribute to more intricate projects... [and] to learn more about the impact that health data research has on the healthcare system and patients. This will enable me to tailor the research I complete, ensuring it is not only informative but also beneficial to patients.”

Programme Theme(s): Describe 

Project title: Exploring the Correlates and Benefits of Specialist Referral in Asthma: an Analysis of Routine Datasets 

Miss Amy Shackleford is an Inflammation and Immunity PhD student based at Queen’s University Belfast.  

Her PhD project focuses on new biologic treatments for severe asthma. Using a range of data sources, Amy will explore what factors – geographic, socioeconomic, and clinical – influence the likelihood of patients with severe asthma being prescribed these medications. She will also investigate the benefits of early access to these drugs, including the impact of trajectory on corticosteroid toxicity. 

Biologics are effective at improving symptoms, reducing the number of exacerbations experienced and maintenance oral corticosteroid usage. In fact, these new treatments have been so effective has been so prominent it has enabled a new treatment goal of “remission” for individuals with severe asthma. These improvements are beginning to lower the burden of severe asthma on both patients and healthcare systems. 

Supervisor(s): 

• Professor Liam Heaney, Northern Ireland Lead (Queen’s University Belfast) 

• Dr John Busby, Deputy Northern Ireland Lead (Queen’s University Belfast) 

Programme Theme(s): Describe, Training & Capacity Building

Project title: An investigation of the socioeconomic drivers of inequalities in asthma in Wales with a focus on young people 

Cedric Burden is an Inflammation and Immunity PhD student based at Swansea University; he also acts as the programme’s PhD Representative. 

Cedric’s PhD project explores how socioeconomic factors may drive inequalities in asthma care in Wales, specifically among young people. The aim is to generate the information required to better understand and predict severe asthma outcomes, allowing for more targeted, individual-level interventions to be planned. 

He has a background in Physics, Theoretical Physics and secondary education, with a particular interest in using data interrogation and modelling to improve public health. 

Supervisor(s):  

• Professor Gwyneth Davies, Wales Lead (Swansea University) 

• Professor Rich Fry (Swansea University) 

• Dr Mohammad Al Sallakh, Research Fellow (Swansea University) 

• Professor Jenni Quint, Co-Lead Investigator (Imperial College London) 

I am interested in conducting research that identifies the underlying disparities in access and provision of health care, so that tailored interventions can be developed, and health outcomes improved for underserved communities.

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Programme Theme(s): Describe 

Project title: Characterising RSV infection in electronic health records & investigating the association between RSV infection and asthma in children

Ms Daira Trusinska is an Inflammation and Immunity PhD student based at The University of Edinburgh. She is supervised by affiliate member Dr Ting Shi. 

By using electronic health records, Daira aims to: 

1. Describe respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection in young children; 
2. Explore the relationship between RSV infection in early childhood and the development of asthma or recurrent wheezing in later childhood 

RSV is a prevalent cause of acute respiratory infections in children aged five and under. Although for most children RSV infection is mild and self-limiting, the global impact remains substantial, with an estimated 3.6 million hospital admissions and 26,300 in-hospital deaths in this age group in 2019 alone. Furthermore, numerous studies have found a link between RSV infection in early childhood and the development of asthma or recurrent wheezing in later childhood. 

Investigating the association between RSV infection in childhood and the development of asthma is of interest in relation to the use of RSV preventive interventions, which could potentially contribute to a reduction in asthma morbidity in children. 

By identifying potential risk factors for serious RSV, this study’s findings have the potential to help inform which groups of children would benefit most from preventative interventions and early treatment. 

Supervisor(s): 

• Dr Ting Shi, (primary; The University of Edinburgh) 

• Professor Aziz Sheikh, Co-Lead Investigator (secondary; The University of Edinburgh 

• Professor Jurgen Schwarze, (tertiary; Centre for Inflammation Research, The University of Edinburgh) 

• Dr John Busby, Deputy Northern Ireland Lead (external; Centre for Public Health Queen’s University Belfast) 

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Programme Theme(s): Describe 

Project Title: Exploring and characterising long-term health impacts of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and associations with COPD treatment among different COPD phenotypes: an analysis of electronic health records in the United Kingdom 

Miss Harley Kwok is an Inflammation and Immunity PhD student based at Imperial College London. She is supervised by Professor Jennifer Quint, Co-Lead Investigator of our programme. Her research interest is on respiratory disease epidemiology, with a background in epidemiology, public and global health. 

In her PhD project, Harley aims to explore the: 

1. Progression and long-term health impacts of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); 

2. Relationship between different COPD phentoypes and treatments 

She hopes that her project will bring new understanding about the best possible definition of COPD phenotypes and phenotype-specific medication impacts. 

Read Harley’s professional profile 

I saw this as a fantastic opportunity to improve my research skills by being able to undertake a PhD exploring a public health level national intervention, aiming to improve outcomes for CYP with asthma and reduce inequalities in asthma.

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Programme Theme(s): Describe, Intervene & Evaluate

Project title: System-wide and data-driven approaches to improving asthma outcomes in children and young people. 

Dr Karl Holden is one of our programme’s PhD students, based at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. He is also a qualified doctor and pediatric registrar, having undertaken integrated clinical and academic training. 

The aim of Karl’s PhD project is to assess if system-wide (pilot programme in 8 ICBs in England) and data-driven approaches (use of risk stratification in primary care records) have been successful in: 

1. Improving clinical outcomes of asthma in Children and Young People (CYP); 
2. Reducing inequalities in these clinical outcomes 

What are ICBs?

Integrated Care Boards are NHS organisations responsible for:  

• Planning health services for their local population; 

• Managing the NHS budget; 

• Arranging for the provision of health services in a geographic area; 

There are 42 ICBs in England. Rather than ICBs, Scotland and Wales instead have regional heath boards. There are 14 health boards in Scotland and 7 in Wales. 

Find out more about ICBs 

Find out more about regional health boards in Scotland 

Find our more about health boards in Wales 

In the UK, most CYP living with asthma are treated in a primary care setting (seeing GPs and asthma nurses). This approach has been described as “fragmented and fatally fallible”, with the UK having the worst CYP asthma outcomes in Europe. Significant socioeconomic inequalities also exist. Even when national CYP asthma admission rates fall, the gaps between the least and most deprived areas increases. 

In 2021, NHS England published the National Bundle of Care for Asthma. This document outlined system-wide infrastructure and pathways to improve asthma outcomes, with themes including data and digital (e.g. being able to use data to create at-risk registers). As a result, a national, pilot scheme is being undertaken where 8 ICBs have received funding to recruit CYP asthma practitioners to facilitate: 

1. Work across the ICB and deliver key elements of the bundle; 
2. The use of risk stratification in primary care electronic health records to target intervention towards CYP at highest risk of poor outcomes 

It is these interventions that Karl will be evaluating. 

Alongside his PhD, Karl is also an associate Principal Investigator in a paediatric drug randomised control trial for severe asthma (The TREAT trial). Previous areas of research include: 

• Biomarkers of disease activity in preschool wheeze, fungal sensitatisation and disease activity in childhood asthma; 

• Involved with developing clinical characterisation protocol study for COVID-19 in adults, then children (Co-Investigator with the ISARIC programme) 

• Effect of air quality (housing, indoor and outdoor) on respiratory health in children 

Supervisor(s): 

• Professor Ian Sinha, Steering Group member (Alder Hey Children’s Hospital NHS Trust, University of Liverpool) 

• Dr. Dan Hawcutt (Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, University of Liverpool) 

Programme Theme(s): Describe

Project title: Influence of smoking status or vaping on severity of COPD at diagnosis, COPD management, and comorbidity diagnosis and management 

Miss Rong Ding is an affiliated PhD student based at Imperial College London. She has a background in psychology and finance. Her PhD supervisor is Inflammation and Immunity Co-lead, Professor Jenni Quint.

Rong’s PhD project investigates how smoking and vaping impacts the management and treatment outcomes of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

I want to continue to develop my expertise on inequalities in asthma outcomes by understanding linked data and exchanging knowledge with academics, asthma patients and clinicians.

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Programme themes: Describe

Project title: Exploring the role of health inequalities as determined by socioeconomic status in the diagnosis, management and outcomes of adults with asthma in England

Zakariah Gassesse is one of Inflammation and Immunity’s PhD students, based at the School of Public Health, Imperial College London.

Zak’s PhD project explores the relationship between a person’s socioeconomic status and their asthma care pathway (diagnosis, management and outcomes). More specifically, he will investigate whether socioeconomic status can lead to inequalities in asthma care. He will also evaluate how important the different factors used to calculate socioeconomic status (e.g. Education, wealth, proximity to green spaces) are in explaining identified patterns.

Despite the UK having one of the highest asthma rates in the world, little is currently known about the impact of societal inequalities on asthma care. Zak hopes that his project will generate the results necessary to begin filling in the gaps, providing a better understanding of the extent to which these inequalities affect asthma treatment over time. Decision-makers could then use such findings in policy and practice to develop and implement interventions to address healthcare needs.

Supervisor(s):

• Professor Jenni Quint, Co-Lead Investigator (primary; Imperial College London)
• Dr Hannah Whittaker, Reasearch Fellow & ECR Representative (secondary; Imperial College London)
• Dr Constantinos Kallis, Research Fellow (tertiary; Imperial College London)

Read Zak’s professional profile

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Programme Theme(s): Describe, Predict 

Dr Holly Tibble is an affiliated member of Inflammation and Immunity based at the Usher Institute, The University of Edinburgh. 

Her research centres around respiratory conditions, including asthma, allergies, COVID-19 and influenza. Holly’s current focus is primarily on asthma attack risk prediction, specifically by using natural language processing of prescription data. She aims to investigate how various parties (e.g. clinicians, patients and policymakers) envision computer aided decision support being integrated into clinical care. 

Read Holly’s GitHub account 

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Programme Theme(s): Predict, Describe

Dr Ting Shi is an Inflammation and Immunity’s affiliate member, and is the primary supervisor of Daira Trusinska, one of our programme’s PhD students. 

A Chancellor’s Fellow at the Usher Institute, the University of Edinburgh, Ting is an Epidemiologist with expertise in infectious diseases and global health. She has a particular interest in viral respiratory infections such as Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) and COVID-19.  

Ting’s current work focuses on: 

1. Understanding the short- and long-term impacts of RSV on: 

   • A person’s future health; and 

   • The delivery of health and care services; 

2. Developing risk prediction tools that can: 

   • Help identify which groups of people are most at risk of becoming seriously ill with respiratory infections during the winter months 

   • Help predict the extra demand experienced by health and care services due to these diseases 

These two areas are of considerable policy interest as an improved understanding of the risks and impacts of these diseases will underpin the development of future targeted and preventive intervention strategies (e.g. vaccination, monoclonal antibodies, antivirals/antibiotics, optimising care for at risk individuals).  

Ting hopes that the knowledge exchange gained through collaborating with our programme will facilitate and enhance her investigations, as well as assist in sharing her findings to the desired audiences. In return, Ting shares with us her expertise in:

• Infectious disease and global health 

• Statistical modelling and systematic approaches to epidemiological evidence; 

• Analysing national scale linked data 

Read Ting’s professional profile 

View Ting’s Google Scholar page