Staff Profile

I completed my PhD at the University of Sheffield and joined Newcastle University in 2005 working as a Research Associate in the Lung Immunobiology Research Group under the supervision of PIs Prof. Derek Mann and Prof. Andrew Fisher. In 2011 I was awarded a Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship and spent 2 years working in the laboratory of Dr Thomas Wynn at the National Institute of Health in the Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases in Bethesda. Upon returning to Newcastle I was appointed to a University Research Fellowship role and provided dedicated laboratory space and support to conduct my research. I was promoted to a Lecturer in Fibrosis Biology in 2017 and a Senior Lecturer in Fibrosis Biology in 2019.

My research primarily focuses on understanding the role of fibroblast plasticity in driving/resolving inflammation and fibrosis in the lung, liver and heart. To achieve this goal my laboratory combines in vivo mouse models with the use of precision cut slices (PCS) prepared from human tissue and ex-vivo cultures of human epithelial cells and fibroblasts. The use of human tissue and cells is helping us to develop new robust laboratory models to study fibrosis that are more relevant to human disease. Research in my laboratory is funded by an MRC MICA Programme Grant (in collaboration with GSK), an ESF grant from Pfizer (in collaboration with Edinburgh University) and Duchenne UK.  

Area of expertise: inflammation, fibrosis, fibroblasts, lung, liver, heart

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Education

• PhD Studentship - Identification of novel protein complexes associated with CFTR at the plasma membrane of epithelial cells - University of Sheffield (2002-2005).
• BSc Cell Biology - Collingwood College, Durham University - 1999-2002.

Selected Presentations

• Keystone Symposia - Fibrosis and Tissue Repair - A Bioreactor Technology for Modelling Fibrosis in Human and Rodent Precision-Cut Liver Slices

• 4th Annual NASH Summit - Keeping up with the Joneses: What can we learn from pulmonary and cardiac fibrosis?

• 3rd International Conference on Tissue Repair, Regeneration, and Fibrosis - Modulation of fibroblast phenotypes as a novel therapeutic target for IPF

• Anti-Fibrotic Drug Development Summit - Next Generation In-Vitro Models

• 2nd International Conference on Tissue Repair, Regeneration, and Fibrosis - Fibroblasts drive inflammation and monocyte recruitment in damaged tissue via an IL-1R1/JunD/CCL2 dependant signalling pathway

• International Society for Heart & Lung Transplantation - Mechanisms of chronic lung allograft rejection

• First International Conference on Tissue Repair, Regeneration, and Fibrosis - Investigating the role of FPR-1 in multi-organ fibrosis

Selected Funding

• Paish H, Reed L, Brown H, Bryan M, Govaere O, Leslie J, Barksby B, GarciaMacia M, Watson A, Xu X, Zaki M, Greaves L, Whitehall J, French J, White S, Manas D, Robinson S, Spoletini G, Griffiths C, Mann DA, Borthwick LA, Drinnan M, Mann J, Oakley F. A bioreactor technology for modelling fibrosis in human and rodent precision-cut liver slices. Hepatology 2019, 70(4), 1377-1391.
• Moles A, Sanchez AM, Banks PS, Murphy LB, Luli S, Borthwick L, Fisher A, O'Reilly S, van Laar JM, White SA, Perkins ND, Burt AD, Mann DA, Oakley F. Inhibition of RelA-Ser536 phosphorylation by a competing peptide reduces mouse liver fibrosis without blocking the innate immune response. Hepatology 2013, 57(2), 817-828.