Overview

Cohort: 8
PhD Start date: August 2024

I am a speciality registrar in rheumatology and internal medicine with an interest in inflammatory arthritis and psoriatic diseases.

I graduated from The University of Manchester in 2018 and subsequently completed the UK Foundation Programme in Mid-Cheshire Hospitals Foundation Trust.

In 2020, I was awarded an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship in Rheumatology which included funding to undertake an MRes in Experimental Medicine from The University of Manchester. From 2020 to 2023 I completed Internal Medicine training, completed membership examinations for the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP). During the pandemic I was re-deployed and worked in acute and emergency medicine and recruited patients for the RECOVERY trial.

As an NIHR academic clinical fellow, I was awarded further grants and fellowships from the National Psoriasis Foundation (NPF), the British Society for Rheumatology (BSR), the British Psoriatic Arthritis Consortium (BritPACT), the Houghton-Dunn Charitable Trust, and the Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre (MAHSC) to study the transcriptomic landscape of synovial inflammation in psoriatic arthritis.

In 2024, I was awarded a Wellcome Trust 4ward North PhD Fellowship.

Prior to medical school I graduated from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada with an Associate Diploma in Piano Performance and Advanced Music History and Theory.

PhD Title

An integrated single cell and spatial transcriptomic study of synovial inflammation in psoriatic arthritis.

Brief Summary of PhD Project

Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is a chronic autoimmune condition causing inflammatory arthritis, morbidity, and mortality if untreated. Around 200,000 adults in the UK suffer from this debilitating condition.

Immunosuppressive medications target specific immune pathways to reduce inflammation, but many patients do not respond to treatment. Therefore, more research is needed into how the disease can be effectively treated. Recent advancements in transcriptomic technologies have revealed disease-critical cell subtypes and cellular interactions in related diseases, yet the single cell and spatial transcriptomic landscape of active PsA remains underexplored.

In this project, I will use integrated single cell and spatial transcriptomic approaches to study inflamed synovial tissue, fluid, and blood from biologic-naïve PsA patients with active inflammation detected by ultrasound. The data created will be the most comprehensive single cell atlas of PsA to date, the first spatial transcriptomic study in PsA, and will identify key cell populations and cellular interactions mediating joint inflammation. Results will enhance our understanding of the joint microenvironment and pinpoint novel therapeutic targets and biomarkers of disease activity.

Supervisors

• Prof Anne Barton, The University of Manchester (Lead Supervisor)
• Prof Muzliffah Haniffa, Newcastle University (Supervisor)
• Dr Spencer Collis, Sheffield University (Supervisor)
• Prof David Westhead, University of Leeds (Supervisor)
• Prof Pauline Ho, The University of Manchester (Supervisor)

Key collaborators

• Dr Darren Plant, The University of Manchester
• Dr Paul Martin, The University of Manchester
• Prof Maya Buch, The University of Manchester
• Prof Soumya Raychaudhuri, Harvard University

Speciality Interest/Techniques

• Single cell transcriptomics
• Spatial transcriptomics
• Computational biology and bioinformatics
• Inflammatory Arthritis
• Musculoskeletal ultrasound and synovial biopsy

Career Aspirations

My career ambition is to be a clinical academic and to lead a programme of translational research that will ultimately help improve the lives of patients. As clinical academics I believe it is important to act as the interface between academia, patients, the pharmaceutical industry, and the biotechnology industry to lead research that will improve diagnosis and treatment for patients. For me specifically I want to improve the lives of patients with inflammatory arthritis, especially psoriatic arthritis.

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