Medicine

Overview

Research in Chester Medical School is led by a dedicated large group of experienced biomedical and clinical researchers, providing exciting opportunities for study - ranging from basic cellular/molecular science to clinical translational and clinical studies.

Chester Medical School welcomes applicants to undertake research towards MRes, MPhil and PhD research degrees. The School’s research is underpinned by a diverse range of staff research interests and many national and international links. A number of Chester Medical School staff are international experts in their field.

We actively promote a positive research culture; this involves peer learning, teaching from experts, journal clubs, research meetings, an annual postgraduate research conference and our Lunch and Learn research seminar series. The research seminars are attended by both staff and students across the University, and everyone is encouraged to present their research. We aim to enhance and support collaborative working and to peer review current research.

Research Areas

Our current research can be classified as two broad areas:

Molecules, Cells and Tissues Research

• Leukaemia Research Group. Focusing on basic and translational research on Chronic myeloid leukaemia and acute myeloid leukaemia (Dr Claire Lucas, Dr Michelle Cordingley, Dr Svetlana Mysina, Dr Gareth Jones.
• Stem Cells and Tissue Regeneration Research Group - focusing on spinal injury, and stem cell and tissue regeneration (Professor Eustace Johnson, Dr Emma Wilson).
• Cancer Biology and Genetics Research Group (Dr Laurence Seabra, Dr Melisa Baptista, Dr Svetlana Mysina).
• Musculoskeletal Disorders, Ageing and Extracellular Matrix Biology. Focusing on musculoskeletal biology concerning a variety of age-related pathologies, mainly osteoarthritis, osteoporosis and skeletal muscle deterioration (Dr Ioannis Kanakis, Dr Emma Wilson).
• Kidney Extracellular Matrix Group. Focusing on diseases that impact extracellular matrix and adhesion signalling within the kidney (Professor John Alcolado, Dr Michael Randles).
• Biochemical Research Group. Focusing on aberrations in Ca2+ signalling pathways (caused by diseases or toxic insults) and induction of cell death (Professor Frank Michelangeli, Dr Ioannis Kanakis).
• Fetal and maternal health. Focusing on conditions affecting the maternal and fetal environment during pregnancy and how that can influence life post pregnancy (Dr Gareth Nye).
• Molecular immunology and histopathology research group (Dr Jon Power, Dr Navaneethan Palanisamy, Gemma Jenkins).
• Cardiovascular disease research group (Dr Hanady Hamdallah, Allam Harfoush)

Clinical Medicine

The focus of this group is interdisciplinary clinical practice and research for patient benefit. The group, led by Professor Steven Jones, recently developed with the recruitment of several academic appointments and experienced clinicians from the disciplines of psychology, nursing, physicians associate, treatment radiography, and medicine.

The group aims to cultivate clinical academic staff towards clinical research careers. This group strengthens our research emphasis on national and international health development. Group members work with local NHS Trusts to develop collaborative research grants, and visiting NHS Clinical Professors have strengthened the clinical care group at Chester Medical School.

To support interdisciplinary collaborations with other faculties, and local and national stakeholders, each group member will have special interests and the group ethos is to nurture these interests. Finally, group members of the two medical school research peer groups meet with the aim of sharing ideas and experiences for staff and postgraduate student research development (Professor Steven Jones, Professor Sujeet Jajdeokar,  Professor Taj Nathan, Wendi Heathcock, Megan Twamley).

Collaboration network

Staff at Chester Medical school have established an impressive network of collaborators to facilitate research and teaching excellence. Here are just some of our active collaborations.

• Turku Bioscience Centre, University of Turku, Finland
• Emory University, Atlanta GA
• Centre for Biotechnology, Anna University, Chennai
• Haematology/oncology. Azadi Teaching Hospital, Iraq
• School of Cancer Sciences, University of Glasgow
• School of Life and Health Sciences, University of Roehampton
• Division of Cancer and Genetics, University of Cardiff
• Department of haematology, University of Cambridge
• Institute of Systems, Molecular and Integrative Biology (ISMIB), University of Liverpool
• Institute of Life Course and Medical Sciences, University of Liverpool
• School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham
• Institute of Clinical Sciences, University of Birmingham
• School of Pharmacy and Bioengineering, Keele University
• Veterinary Tissue Bank, Wrexham
• The Kroto Institute, University of Sheffield
• Department of biology, University of Oxford
• Department of Medical Sciences (Infection medicine), Uppsala University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden
• Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, NUI Galway, Ireland
• MRC Metabolic Diseases Unit, University of Cambridge
• School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia
• Biosciences Institute, Newcastle University
• School of Health & Life Sciences, Teesside University
• School of Biodiversity, One Health & Veterinary Medicine, University of Glasgow
• Department of Comparative Biomedical Sciences, Royal Veterinary College, London
• National Hellenic Research Foundation, Greece
• Medical School, University of Patras, Greece
• School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Central Lancashire
• Manchester Academic Health Science Centre
• Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell-Matrix Research, Division of Cell-Matrix Biology and Regenerative Medicine, School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Biology Medicine and Health, University of Manchester
• Department of Renal Medicine, University College London
• Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, United States
• Centre for Cellular and Molecular Physiology, University of Oxford
• Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences, University of Glasgow
• Countess of Chester Hospital
• Addenbrooke’s Hospital Cambridge
• Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital
• Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board
• Royal Liverpool University Hospital.
• East Lancashire Hospitals
• Royal Manchester Children's Hospital

Facilities 

Chester Medical School has well-equipped, modern research laboratories, allowing us to analyse tissues and cells at the molecular level. The research facilities include: cell biology/biochemistry laboratories, containing tissue culture (including stem cell research), cell imaging (brightfield and fluorescence microscopy), and flow cytometry facilities and microtomes for histological analyses. We also have microbiology facilities, molecular biology laboratories equipped with PCR and RT-qPCR instrumentation and protein analysis laboratories containing SDS-PAGE and Western blotting equipment, including the automated WES system, as well as an autoanalyzer for analyte measurements in biological fluids. Specialist facilities at Chester Medical School are supported by our academic and technical staff.