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Staff Profile

Professor John Simpson

Professor of Respiratory Medicine, Newcastle University

  • Telephone: 0191 208 2788
  • Address: 3rd Floor, William Leech Building
    Medical School
    Newcastle University
    Framlington Place
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE2 4HH
Background

Qualifications

FMedSci

FRCP(Edin)

PhD

MBChB

BMedBiol (Hons)


Current Roles and Responsibilities

Programme Director for the MRC/NIHR Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation (EME) programme.

Co-director of the NIHR Healthtech Research Centre (HRC) in Diagnostic and Technology Evaluation.

NIHR Senior Investigator.


Previous roles

Deputy Chair, MRC Clinical Training and Career Development Panel.

Director of the NIHR Newcastle Diagnostic Evidence Co-operative (DEC) and the NIHR Newcastle Medtech and In vitro diagnostics evidence Co-operative (MIC).

Dean of Translational Research, Newcastle University, June 2015-August 2018.

Clinical Director of R&D in Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, 2013-February 2016.


Background

I am part of the PRINCIPLE (Paediatric, Respiratory, INtensive Care, Immunity and PuLmonary Epithelium) Research Group in Newcastle. 

My research is principally interested in understanding innate immune dysfunction in the setting of critical illness, with a view to developing novel treatments and improving antibiotic stewardship. We are particularly interested in ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) and sepsis. Further details are found in the adjacent RESEARCH section. Selected publications are shown in the accompanying PUBLICATIONS section.


My clinical interests are in pulmonary embolism, interstitial lung disease and pneumonia. I moved to Newcastle in 2010, having previously worked in the University of Edinburgh / MRC Centre for Inflammation Research, and in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.




Research

Overview

Our group’s work spans discovery science, experimental medicine and randomised controlled trials (RCTs). The work focuses principally on innate immunity (with particular reference to neutrophil and monocyte function), and how this is impaired in critical illness.


We have identified mechanisms by which neutrophils become dysfunctional phagocytic capacity during critical illness. This acquired functional defect is independently associated with significantly increased risk of developing nosocomial infection in the intensive care unit (ICU). We have also described novel means by which to restore neutrophil functions to normal (for example using GM-CSF). We are currently involved in clinical trials assessing whether interferon gamma (INFINIT trial) and GM-CSF (SepTIC and INSIGHT-AM trials) can improve innate immune function in critically ill patients.


We have a longstanding programme studying acute innate immune responses (and their resolution) in humans, using carefully supervised models of inhaled and intravenous administration of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS).



Collaborators outside Newcastle

INFINIT trial - Tony Rostron (Sunderland), Danny McAuley (Belfast), Andrew Conway Morris (Cambridge), Paul Dark and Tim Felton (Manchester), Suveer Singh (Chelsea and Westminster), Tully Redmond (Oldham), Ingeborg Welters and Ben Morton (Liverpool), Dhruv Parekh (Birmingham), Jeremy Henning (Middlesbrough), Clingen


INSIGHT-AM trial - Tony Rostron (Sunderland), Andrew Conway Morris (Cambridge), Paul Dark and Tim Felton (Manchester), Bart Lambrecht (Ghent), Partner Therapeutics, Aerogen Ltd.


SepTIC trial - Tony Gordon (chief investigatory, Imperial College).


TIPAL trial - Andrew Wilson (chief investigator, East Anglia)


CHORUS trial - Michael Gibbons (chief investigator, Exeter)


Neutrophil biology - Danny McAuley, Cecilia O'Kane and Cliff Taggart (Belfast), Adriano Rossi and David Dockrell (Edinburgh), Steve Renshaw (Sheffield), John Girkin and Anders Aufderhorst-Roberts (Durham), Sally Clayton (Birmingham)



Grants as Lead Applicant (current and selected previous)

Current

MRC DPFS. MICA: Can interferon gamma prevent infection in critically ill patients at highest risk? A phase II randomised controlled trial (the INFINIT trial).


MRC Experimental Medicine. MICA: Key mechanisms underlying inhaled GM-CSF's enhancement of phagocytosis and bacterial clearance by human alveolar macrophages (the INSIGHT-AM trial).


NIHR HTA - A randomised controlled trial of SHORT duration antibiotic thERapy for critically ill patients with sepsis: SHORTER Trial (Joint lead applicant with Dr Tom Hellyer, Newcastle University).


NIHR Healthtech Research Centre in Diagnostic and Technology Evaluation. Co-director (with Dr Andrew Sims, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust).  


Selected Previous

Wellcome Trust/Department of Health Health Innovation Challenge Fund (HICF): Rapid detection and treatment of ventilator-associated pneumonia – towards improved antibiotic stewardship.


NIHR Newcastle Medtech and In Vitro Diagnostics Co-operative (MIC).


NIHR Newcastle Diagnostic Evidence Co-operative (DEC). 


Sir Jules Thorn Charitable Trust Award for Biomedical Sciences 2003. Acute infective lung injury: towards cell therapy with antiprotease-infected monocytes.


Sir Jules Thorn Charitable Trust . A randomised controlled trial of monocyte depletion in acute neutrophil-mediated lung injury.


MRC Developmental Clinical Studies (DCS): Does GM-CSF restore effective neutrophil function in critically ill patients?



Teaching

In 2009 I received an Edinburgh University Students' Association Teaching Award.

I am currently an external examiner for medical finals at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and for a BMedSci module at the University of Edinburgh. 







Publications