Meningitis UK's Scientific Medical Advisory Panel
Meningitis UK's scientific medical advisory panel is made up of medical professionals from across the UK who are leading experts in the field of meningitis vaccine development. Their role is to ensure that money donated by Meningitis UK supporters is used to fund top-quality, cutting-edge research.
Dr Ray Borrow
Head of Vaccine Evaluation Unit, Health Protection Agency North West, Manchester Laboratory, Manchester Royal Infirmary, Manchester.
Dr. Ray Borrow is Head of the Vaccine Evaluation Unit at the Health Protection Agency, Manchester, UK, where he is responsible for the evaluation of serological responses to various bacterial and viral vaccines with a special interest in meningococcal and pneumococcal vaccines. He gained his PhD in 1994 and his MRCPath in 2003. His scientific findings resulted in over 140 peer reviewed published papers. He serves as a member of the Department of Health's Joint Committee of Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) and frequently advises the World Health Organisation (WHO) and companies on both meningococcal and pneumococcal vaccines.
Dr Jeremy Brown
Senior Lecturer at University College London and holds an Honorary Consultant in the University College London Hospitals trust.
Dr Brown trained in medicine within a variety of London hospitals and carried out his PhD and post-doctoral training at Imperial College and Adelaide University. He now heads a research group investigating the pathogenesis of infections due to Streptococcus pneumoniae, with particular interests in the mechanisms of innate immunity to S. pneumoniae infections and bacterial surface proteins. The long-term goal of the research is to identify new preventative or therapeutic strategies against S. pneumoniae disease. Please see Dr Brown's page on the University College London website for further information.
Dr Myron Christodoulides - Chairperson
Senior Lecturer in Molecular Microbiology, University of Southampton Medical School
Dr Myron Christodoulides graduated with a BSc in microbiology from University College, London and a PhD in microbiology from The University of Glasgow. Following postdoctoral positions in Health and Welfare, Canada and the University of Newcastle, Myron finished his postdoctoral training in the Molecular Microbiology Group in the School of Medicine of the University of Southampton. Currently, he is a senior lecturer in molecular microbiology at the University of Southampton Medical School and his research focuses on the pathogenesis of bacterial infections of the central nervous system and the nature of CNS innate immunity. Other areas of interest include investigating human immunity to meningococcal carriage and disease and the development of vaccines. For more information about his research please see Dr Christodoulides' page on the University of Southampton Medical School website.
Professor David Dockrell
Professor of Infectious Diseases and Consultant in the Department of Communicable Diseases at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield
Professor David Dockrell is a clinician scientist who graduated in medicine from Trinity College Dublin and trained in Dublin before undertaking speciality training in Infectious Diseases at the Mayo Clinic, USA. During this time he developed an interest in macrophage immunology and the regulation of apoptosis. He joined the University of Sheffield in 1998 and focused his research on how macrophage apoptosis regulates innate immune responses with particular emphasis on pneumococcal infection. He received a Wellcome Senior Clinical Fellowship in 2005. He is currently Professor of Infectious Diseases and a Consultant in the Department of Communicable Diseases at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield, with an interest in HIV medicine and infections in immunocompromised hosts. For more information please see Professor Dockrell’s full biography on the University of Sheffield’s website.
Dr Darryl Hill
Senior Lecturer in Microbiology, School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Bristol.
Dr Darryl Hill obtained a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Swansea in 1993 and graduated with a PhD in 1997. Following a postdoctoral position in the University of Swansea, Darryl moved to the University of Bristol in 1998. He worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at Bristol before becoming a lecturer in microbiology in the University of Bristol in 2006. Darryl currently works as a senior lecturer in microbiology in the School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Bristol.
Darryl’s research focuses on understanding the interplay between bacteria and humans during colonisation and progression of disease. By understanding key mechanisms used by bacteria to interact with human cells and tissues as well as avoiding killing by the immune system new therapeutic targets to prevent disease targets can be identified. Darryl’s research focuses not only on the cause of meningococcal disease but a number of other bacterial pathogens which live in the human respiratory tract.
Dr Ed Kaczmarski
Head of National Meningococcal Reference Unit for England and Wales, Health Protection Agency, Manchester Laboratory, Manchester Royal Infirmary, Manchester
Dr Kaczmarski (MB BS, Dip.Bact, FRCPath) trained at King's College & St George’s Hospital Medical School London, and obtained his medical qualifications in 1978. He had clinical training posts in internal medicine, clinical haematology and infectious diseases before commencing microbiology training, which was undertaken on the North West Regional rotation in various Manchester hospitals. In February 1990, he was appointed Consultant Medical Microbiologist at Manchester Health Protection Agency and, in January 1999, was appointed Head of the HPA National Meningococcal Reference Unit for England and Wales. Dr Kaczmarski is particularly interested in the diagnosis, management and epidemiology of meningococcal disease, as well as infection in immunocompromised patients, food & environmental microbiology and laboratory safety.
Dr Simon Nadel
Consultant in Paediatric Intensive Care at St Mary's Hospital and Imperial College London
Dr Simon Nadel has been a Consultant in Paediatric Intesive Care at St. Mary's Hospital and Imperial College London since 1994. He is also trained in Paediatric Infectious Diseases having received training at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr Nadel's main clinical and research interest is in the diagnosis and outcome of life threatening infection in childhood, including meningitis and septicaemia.
Dr James Stuart
Independent Consultant Epidemiologist
James Stuart has worked for 25 years as an infectious disease epidemiologist in the UK. He has a longstanding interest in the epidemiology and control of meningococcal disease. He is currently working for the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine on a major research project in the Meningitis Belt of Africa.
Dr Caroline Vipond
Senior Scientist, Division of Bacteriology, National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, Hertfordshire
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Dr Vipond is a Senior Scientist in the Division of Bacteriology at the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, where she runs the meningococcal group responsible for ensuring the safety and quality of a number of licensed meningococcal vaccines and producing standard reference reagents used by epidemiology, research and commercial laboratories. In addition to these regulatory and standardisation responsibilities, the group carries out vaccine based research including: pre-clinical assessment of novel meningococcal antigens; studies to assess antigen diversity and variable expression; proteomic based projects examining the meningococcal outer membrane. As a result, Dr Vipond is closely associated with many of the current meningococcal vaccine developments and works in an advisory capacity with vaccine companies and bodies such as the EMA (European Medicines Agency) and the EDQM (European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines).
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