We are pleased to announce the appointment of two new Oxford Health BRC Senior Research Fellows – Susannah Murphy and Jennifer Wild.
The competitive selection process was a coordinated effort by the Oxford Health BRC and its partners in the NIHR Oxford BRC, and the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) for Oxford and the Thames Valley. A total of seven fellows have been appointed – four are supported by the Oxford BRC and one by the ARC.
The new Senior Fellows, who will receive £10,000 per year for a period of two years to facilitate their translational research programme and career development, were chosen from an extremely strong field of candidates from across the scientific and clinical community because they demonstrated that their research was high impact and of high quality.
They also demonstrated leadership, independence and collaboration with other research groups. The aim of the fellowships is to support individuals to advance an independent research area which will enhance BRC research in Oxford and strengthen future BRC funding applications.
Oxford Health BRC Fellows
Susannah Murphy is a Senior Research Fellow and University Research Lecturer based in the Department of Psychiatry. Her research uses a translational experimental medicine approach to provide an early assessment of the neural and cognitive effects of novel treatment approaches for psychiatric disorders in humans.
Jennifer Wild is an associate professor in Experimental Psychology and a consultant clinical psychologist developing and evaluating treatments for anxiety and stress disorders, and interventions to prevent these problems in emergency responders.
ARC Fellow
Gail Hayward is a GP and is currently an NIHR Advanced Fellow. She is also the Deputy Director of the NIHR Community Healthcare MedTech and In Vitro Diagnostic Cooperative, or MIC. Her research focuses on diagnosis and management of common infection in primary care, with a particular focus on evaluating novel diagnostics in UTIs.
Oxford BRC Fellows
Sarosh Irani is associate professor and honorary consultant neurologist with a clinic and lab focused on the study of patients with autoantibody-mediated diseases of the central nervous system.
Graham Collins is a consultant haematologist and is currently the lymphoma lead for Oxford University Hospitals where he is engaged in early phase clinical trials. He is chair of the National Cancer Research Institute Hodgkin Lymphoma Study Group and was also a member of the lymphoma guidelines development group of NICE.
Bethan Psaila is a Cancer Research UK Advanced Clinical Scientist based at the MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine (WIMM) working on megakaryocyte/platelet biology and bone marrow fibrosis in cancer.
Helen Dakin is a senior researcher in the Health Economics Research Centre. She works on the economic evaluation of NIHR-funded trials within the Oxford BRC. Her current projects include: the STAR trial, the ACHE study, and the KAT trial.
Over the next two years, the Senior Fellows will also have the chance to take part in a series of masterclasses and network with principal BRC fellows.