About
I am an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow in Infectious Diseases working to understand the nature of multimorbidity in TB and the impact on mortality and transmission. This work is supervised by Dr Tom Wingfield, Prof Peter MacPherson and Dr Eve Worrall within LSTM and University of Liverpool, collaborating with PHRU, Wits University, South Africa. My broader research interests include the use of biosensors in acute infection care and infection neuroscience.
I worked as the Clinical Research Fellow for the national COVID-19 Clinical Neuroscience Study, researching acute neurological and neuropsychiatric complications of infection. I demonstrated raised brain injury biomarkers in COVID-19, associated with reduced grey matter volume and cognitive deficits equivalent to 20 years’ brain ageing (Wood et al, Nature Med, 2024). I am a member of the World Health Organisation Neurology and Public Health Global Forum and lead the WHO/UoL/MRF-funded Global Brain Health Clinical Exchange Platform. I work within the collaborating Global COVID-19 Neuro Research Coalition. My other research focuses are seizures in encephalitis and the aetiology of brain infection in low- and middle-income countries. From Sep-Dec 2019, I was based in the Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Trust, Blantyre, Malawi, as part of the NIHR Global Health Research Group on Improving the Management of Acute Brain Infection.
In 2020, I completed a PGCert Tropical Medicine and International Health in the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium. In 2018, funded by a competitive Barbour Scholarship, I completed an MRes Global Health in Newcastle University for which I was awarded the Student Prize for the highest mark in written examinations of over 200 candidates. The MRes project studied the prevalence of frailty in older adults and was undertaken in Moshi, Tanzania. During undergraduate studies, I worked clinically and academically in both Nicaragua and the Czech Republic. In Nicaragua, I contributed to the GlobalSurg-2 international collaborative project and completed a local quality improvement project about the management of surgical site infection. For this work, I was awarded the Sir John Walton Salver Prize for the best quality improvement project undertaken during elective studies. In the Czech Republic, I worked within the Prague Burn Centre, funded by a Wellcome Trust/ Academy of Medical Science INSPIRE Research Scholarship.
I hold a national leadership role within the Royal College of Physicians Flexibility and Wellbeing Reference Group.
Clinically, I work in the Royal Liverpool University Hospital. Within the hospital, I was elected President of the Doctors’ Mess and am involved in quality improvement and teaching.
POLICY
WHO Brain Health Unit: WHO Neurology and COVID-19: Scientific Brief, 20 August 2024 (Contributing author)WHO Neurology and COVID-19: Scientific Brief, 29 September 2021 (Contributing author)
PPI
Member of Encephalitis Society Scientific Advisory Panel
IMPACT; KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE
Lead Global Brain Health Clinical Exchange
Co-Lead international COVID-Neuro Clinical Exchange on behalf of the WHO Neurology & COVID-19 Global Forum.
TEACHING
University of Liverpool, School of Medicine: Member of Faculty of Academic and Clinical Educators. Supervisor and teacher Research & Scholarship Modules.
MEDIA
COVID-CNS: Trial Site News: COVID-19 and psychosis
SEIZURE Score: The Encephalitis Podcast