Equality, diversity and inclusion in the School of Biosciences

Biography

I studied biochemistry and obtained a PhD at the University of Lyon, France, in 2000, working on DNA immunization as a therapeutic approach against chronic Hepatitis B Virus infection, in collaboration with the Institut National de la Sante et Recherche Medicale (INSERM), Lyon, France. I proceeded to work on novel vaccine development and cellular immunity against Hepatitis C Virus chronic infection at the Biomedical Primate Research Center, The Netherlands.

In 2007 I joined the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford as a senior immunologist, to work on improvements of vaccine vectors against malaria. I then moved to the Oxford Vaccine Group in 2010, bringing my expertise of viral vectored vaccine platform and preclinical research,  and became Associate Professor in Vaccinology. I started, developed and led the Novel Vaccine Development  team involved in the creation, design, preclinical and early clinical studies of new and improved vaccines against bacterial diseases and infectious diseases affecting children. My research activities, funded by the Medical research Council, Innovate UK, the Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, and several charities, include the conception, design, pre-clinical and early clinical development of new and improved vaccines against bacterial infections such as caspular group B meningococcus, plague, Q fever, enteric fever, pertussis, gonorrhoea and Respiratory Syncitial Virus.

In 2021 I joined the University of Surrey as Professor of Vaccinology.

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Biography

Dr. Veronica (Vero) Giacintucci is a Lecturer in Food Science and a Sustainability Fellow at the Institute for Sustainability at the University of Surrey. She is also the Editor-in-Chief of the IFST magazine, Food Science & Technology, and mentors Ecotrophelia-targeted projects at the University of Surrey.

Her research initially focused on fats and oils in colloidal systems, investigating their physical and functional properties. She carried out her postdoc at the University of Reading from 2016 to 2018 and broadened her research to explore various food ingredients, particularly fats and sugars, and their impact on the structure and sensory qualities of bakery products. Her current research includes studying plant-based proteins and the use of food waste products in formulations, examining their effects on food's physical and sensory attributes, as well as their nutritional benefits.

Vero is also actively involved with the Institute of Food Science & Technology (IFST) and is dedicated to science communication. She shares her passion for food science through her podcast, The Food Science Addict Podcast, available on Spotify, where she covers a wide range of food science topics.

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Biography

Up to now I seem to have worked at places beginning with the letter S! I started out my career in science right here at the University of Surrey, where I undertook a BSc in Molecular Biology which included a PTY in New York City at Cornell University.

My experience in the lab there sparked my interest in cell signalling and I followed this interest to Brighton, to the University of Sussex, where I undertook a PhD in the lab of Dr Alison Sinclair. My project was on the intracellular interactions of the Epstein-Barr Virus transcription factor Zta (BZLF1) and this quickly led me to the field of DNA Damage response in combination with cellular signalling.

One of the few places left in the south of England with a university and an S to their name was Southampton, so in preparation to leave Sussex, I sought out Dr Paul Townsend who was undertaking some research on STAT-1 and collaborating on a p53 project, which I had found in my PhD research.

While writing up my PhD thesis I co-authored grants (with Dr Townsend and Dr Cragg) to fund my research on p73 and STAT-1 in Lymphoma. The project started in January 2009, just as I handed in my completed PhD thesis. I remained at the University of Southampton while I undertook a further 2 projects which focused more on downstream cell signalling in hormone dependent cancers of the breast (with Mr Ramsey Cutress) and prostate (Dr Simon Crabb) and left the university in April 2014. In my time at the University of Southampton I pursued teaching CPDs, hoping one day that I would make it to be a lecturer.

Following this I had a career break and spent some time teaching swimming, which is how I funded writing my PhD thesis and grants in 2008 and building on my experience as a competitive swimmer when I was at school. I then undertook a part time visiting lecturer post at the University of Westminster, where I focused on small group teaching in Biochemistry, which made a welcome change and allowed me to stretch my brain while also looking after my new daughter.

I returned to where my journey began (and yet another S), joining the University of Surrey teaching staff as a Teaching Fellow in Physiology in January 2017. Initially my post was designed to run physiology modules and to design a new genetics module in addition to contributing to other teaching in the School of Biosciences.

In 2022 I was promoted to the position of Senior Lecturer in Physiology and I then took on my current role of Programme Director for BSc Biochemistry programme. This enables me to have a good overview of student development and pedagogic practices on this programme, identifying where there is room to develop our speciality teaching and research experience.  I lead on the accreditation of four of our BSc programmes by the Royal Society of Biology in Summer 2023. 

I took on my current role of Deputy Director of Learning and Teaching in January 2024. In this role I work with the Director of Learning and Teaching to ensure that modules and programmes are effective with reaching key outputs such as organisation, teaching quality and student voice in addition to ensuring key policies and procedures are adhered to. In this role I work very closely with both Pedagogic development Coordinator and Senior Personal Tutor to ensure that the student experience is maintained and refined throughout the year. 

My pedagogic research focusses on the effect of student belonging and the modes of learning and teaching delivery (online, hybrid and face to face teaching) opportunities on student self efficacy. Creating a truly inclusive, and accessible to all, environment is dear to my heart and I am a great believer in trying to incorporate inclusive practices and Universal Design for Learning is something that I'm very keen to embed in my modules.

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Biography

Julie Hunt graduated with a BSc in Sports Science from the University of Brighton (2007) before achieving an MSc in Exercise Physiology from Loughborough University (2009). During this time she worked as a physiologist for British Triathlon and assisted on UK sport talent ID campaigns. Julie continued her studies at Loughborough University, completing a PhD on the peripheral vascular adaptation to resistance training with blood flow restriction. She has since held an academic post as a Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Physiology.

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Biography

Sarah is the Associate Head of School - Education for the School of Biosciences and Senior Lecturer in Pharmacology.  She is the former Programme Director for BSc Biochemistry and played a key role in the design of the MSci Biochemistry curriculum. Additionally, Sarah is an external examiner at Imperial College, London and an Honorary Lecturer at University College London (UCL). She teaches across the Biosciences at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Prior to joining Surrey, her research centred around pulmonary hypertension and connective tissue diseases. This research considered the remodelling aspects of these conditions using both in vitro and pre-clinical models.

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Biography

I am currently a Lecturer and Surrey Future Fellow at the Section of Systems Biology, University of Surrey.

I am setting up my research group, and please do not hesitate to contact me if you are interested in my research. Please see details of potential projects and opportunities on my personal webpage.

Previously, I was a Postdoc in Chris Barnes’s group at the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University College London, where I worked on dynamical modelling of chromosomal instability (CIN) in cancer genomes. Before this, I was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Genome Institute of Singapore (Weiwei Zhai’s Group), where I mainly developed pipelines and methods to analyse tumour heterogeneity and clonal evolution in liver and lung cancer genomes. I completed my PhD in Computational Biology under the supervision of Hon Wai Leong at School of Computing National University of Singapore, where I developed machine learning and phylogenetic methods for problems related to lateral gene transfer. I obtained my Master’s and Bachelor’s degree from Software Engineering Institute East China Normal University, where I led the development of platforms for high-throughput biological data analysis, including RNA-Seq and proteomic data.

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Biography

Dr Yashwanth Subbannayya is a Lecturer in Translational Biosystems and Fellow of the Institute for People-Centred AI at the University of Surrey with over 15 years of experience in applying Systems Biology approaches, including proteomics, PTMomics, metabolomics, and bioinformatics, to study human diseases. His research focuses on identifying fundamental molecular mechanisms of infectious diseases, innate immunity, and cancer to develop actionable targets for clinical application. He is also interested in developing biological databases and tools for omics analysis.

During his Ph.D. at the Institute of Bioinformatics and Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, he discovered CAMKK2 as a potential therapeutic target for gastric cancer and identified potential serum biomarkers for gastric cancer. He was a contributor to the draft map of the human proteome, which was published in Nature. His post-doctoral research at the Centre of Molecular Inflammation Research (CEMIR) at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology involved multi-omics characterisation of host responses to SARS-CoV-2 and Toll-like receptor signalling pathways.

He has published over 70 peer-reviewed publications and serves as an Editorial Board member for BJC Reports and was an Associate Editor for Gene Reports. At Surrey, he has secured over £400,000 in grant funding and contributed to the setting up of two high-resolution proteomics facilities. He is a member of the Research Data Alliance working group on Building Immune Digital Twins. He represented Norway on the management committee for the GYNOCARE COST action. He has supervised/co-supervised 4 Ph.D. students and over 22 Master's students.
 

ORCID profile:

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3885-3514

Google Scholar profile:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=nA2BbucAAAAJ&hl=en

Personal website:

https://sites.google.com/view/yashwanthsubbannayya

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