Embed, Build, Accelerate – Manchester BRC Director’s blog
Author: Professor Anne Barton View External profile (opens in new window)
Director of NIHR Manchester BRC
Hello and a very warm welcome to my first Embed, Build, Accelerate blog as the Director of the NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre (BRC).
I am delighted to be speaking to you today as Director of Manchester BRC, the beating heart of translational research across Greater Manchester, Lancashire and South Cumbria, which transforms scientific breakthroughs into diagnostic tests and life-saving treatments for patients.
Every other month, through Embed, Build, Accelerate, I will be celebrating one aspect of the BRC and this time it’s our collective fellowship successes as we reflect on the last 18 months of progress.
Fellowships support individuals as part of their career development to becoming future leaders in healthcare research.
These colleagues really are our leaders of the future and it’s important to develop that strong pipeline of research talent, experience, and capacity building.
We are keen to support all our researchers as part of the BRC family and I would like to take this opportunity to mention several BRC colleagues who have recently been successful in fellowship awards:
Within our Inflammation Cluster:
Congratulations to Amaya Viros (pictured right) on her Advanced Clinical Science Fellowship from Cancer Research UK – Amaya leads the Skin Cancer Programme in our Dermatology Theme.
Huda Badri, a consultant respiratory physician with an interest in occupational lung disease, chronic cough and asthma, in our Respiratory Theme, was awarded an NIHR Bridging Fellowship in March 2024.
And specifically within the Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Diseases (RMD) Theme:
Rebecca Lee, an Academic Health Psychologist based at the Centre for Epidemiology, has been awarded a 5-year Career Development Fellowship from Versus Arthritis. Her programme of research will investigate how pain is communicated by children and young people with chronic musculoskeletal pain and she will explore the impact this communication has upon the pain outcomes of this group.
Lianne Kearsley-Fleet (pictured left), epidemiologist at the Centre for Epidemiology was also awarded a 5-year career development grant from Versus Arthritis. In this Career Development Fellowship, she plans to investigate long-term outcomes in adults with juvenile idiopathic arthritis.
Sheilla Achieng, Clinical Research Fellow was awarded a Houghton Dunn R&I Pump-Priming Fellowship Award in 2023.
Ryan Hum, (pictured right) also currently a Houghton Dunn Fellow, has been awarded a Wellcome Trust 4ward North Clinical PhD Fellowship, starting from August 2024 and his project is entitled ‘An integrated single cell and spatial transcriptomic study of synovial inflammation in psoriatic arthritis’.
Within our Cancer Cluster:
Stuart Wright, a rising star in the Cancer Prevention and Early Detection (PED) Theme has been awarded a Wellcome Trust Early Career Award for a project ‘Providing Economic Evidence to Inform and Improve the Implementation of Cancer Screening Programmes’. Kelechi Njoku (pictured left) was awarded the first 3-year Eve Appeal Fellowship to develop a simpler and kinder test for detecting womb cancer. His research is linked to our Cancer PED Theme.
Natalie Cook, from our Cancer Precision Medicine Theme was awarded a 5-year NIHR Rosetrees Trust Advanced Fellowship for a programme of research into cancer of unknown primary. Rebecca Lee, also within our Cancer Precision Medicine Theme, has a Wellcome Early Career Fellowship which started in January 2023.
Garima Dalal, Research Associate in health economics, has been awarded an NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship for; ‘Inclusivity in uptake: impact on the cost-effectiveness of a targeted lung screening programme’.
Donna Shrestha was awarded an NIHR Short Placement in Applied Research Fellowship with the Inclusive Research Team of Manchester BRC’s Inclusive Research Oversight Board.
A huge well done to all those colleagues and everyone across our BRC who has achieved fellowship success – these really are prestigious awards, and a reflection of the outstanding clinical and academic expertise Manchester BRC encompasses.
Please do reach out and seek advice from your Theme Leads if you are planning to apply to a research fellowship scheme. Fellowships can often provide career-defining opportunities and we want to support you every step of the way.
For our latest news and successes, please ensure you are following Manchester BRC’s social media channels on X/Twitter and LinkedIn and keep up to date with the latest information, events and funding opportunities via the Manchester BRC website here.
Thank you,