Biomedicine
Biomedicine lies at the interface of basic and preclinical research and investigates the fundamental mechanisms of the normal and disease processes that influence life-long health - spanning from conception into old age, and from the single cell to the whole organism in its environment.
Research areas
Our biomedical research encompasses three main areas of focus:
- Developmental origins of disease - elucidating the prenatal and epigenetic influences that impact on later-life risk of disease.
- Mechanisms of health and disease - understanding the physiological, connective tissue, neurological and cancer-based mechanisms of disease including metastasis.
- Disease intervention - the development of therapeutic strategies to prevent and treat disease.
Fellowship and PhD applications
We welcome approaches by potential fellowship applicants whose interests map onto the divisional research areas. Please contact biosi-research@cardiff.ac.uk if you are interested.
We also welcome applications from PhD students with research interests that fit our strategic research areas.
Please contact biosi-pg@cardiff.ac.uk for more information.
Staff members
Below is a list of all the academic staff in this division. If you are interested in collaborating with any of us, please use our contact information on our individual pages or email biosi-research@cardiff.ac.uk.
| Name | Area of interest |
|---|---|
| Professor Karl Swann - Head of Division | The physiology of eggs at fertilisation and embryos during early development. |
| Prof Richard Clarkson - Deputy Head of Division | Apoptosis in normal mammary tissues and in models of breast cancer. |
| Dr Emma Blain | Connective tissue mechanobiology. |
| Professor Vladimir Buchman | Functional significance of synuclein proteins in the normal and degenerating nervous system. |
| Dr Vikesh Chhabria (Teaching and Scholarship) | Synthesis of biomimetic nanomaterial formulations for biomedical purposes and development of novel screening technologies for protein aggregation screening of advanced therapeutic medicinal products. |
| Dr Fernando Dos Anjos-Afonso | Biology of Haematopoietic stem/progenitor cells and their niche. |
| Dr Ewan Fowler | Heart failure and inherited disease. |
| Dr Nigel Francis (Teaching and Scholarship) | Immunometabolism and immunology education. |
| Dr Julia Gerasimenko | Molecular mechanisms of pathological processes in exocrine pancreas. |
| Dr Oleg Gerasimenko | Investigation of cell death mechanisms. |
| Dr Sarah Hall (Teaching and Scholarship) | Design, development and evaluation of physiology-related teaching and learning activities; authentic learning opportunities in the undergraduate curriculum. |
| Dr Neil Hardingham (Teaching and Scholarship) | Synaptic transmission in the cerebral cortex and mechanisms by which it can be altered; development, plasticity and disease. |
| Dr Tim Higgins (Teaching and Scholarship) | Cardiovascular systems and diseases. |
| Dr Catherine Hogan | Epithelial cell-cell communication and pancreatic cancer. |
| Professor Clare Hughes | Cartilage proteoglycan metabolism in osteoarthritis. |
| Professor Rosalind John - Deputy Director of Research | How Epigenetic Marks direct Mammalian Development and drive Human Disease. |
| Dr Helen Jones (Teaching and Scholarship) | Signalling mechanisms involved in cancer biology. |
| Dr Renata Jurkowska | Epigenetic regulation of cell renewal and differentiation in the healthy and diseased human lung. |
| Dr Branko Latinkic | Cardiac differentiation. |
| Professor Stan Marée | Effector genes, pavement cells, cytotoxic T lymphocyte. |
| Prof Deborah Mason | Signalling mechanisms regulating bone and cartilage turnover, in osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. |
| Dr Helen McCarthy (Teaching and Scholarship) | Biology of both the articular cartilage progenitor cell and a meniscus-specific progenitor cell in human and equine tissue and their potential role in tissue repair and osteoarthritis. |
| Dr Jittima Muensoongnoen (Teaching and Scholarship) | Anatomy and immunohistochemistry. |
| Dr Isaac Myers (Teaching and Scholarship) | Biological research into the molecular mechanisms of metastasis and angiogenesis. Educational research into anatomical education, professionalism in education, peer learning, and student mental health and wellbeing. |
| Dr Larissa Nelson (Teaching and Scholarship) | Osteoarthritis and cartilage stem cells. |
| Dr Lee Parry | Understanding the interaction between diet, microbiota, immunity and cancer. |
| Dr Girish Patel (Honorary) | Skin cancer stem cells. |
| Dr Helen Pearson | Prostate cancer translational research, preclinical trials, and PI3K/DNA damage repair signalling. |
| MRC Professor Ole Petersen CBE FRS | Calcium signalling: physiology & pathophysiology. |
| Dr David Petrik | Adult neurogenesis and adult neural stem cells in hippocampus and hypothalamus. |
| Dr Toby Phesse | Cell signalling and stem cell function during homeostasis, regeneration and cancer in the gastrointestinal tract. |
| Dr Jim Ralphs | The synthesis, deposition and organisation of collagenous matrices in highly ordered connective tissues. |
| Professor Dipak Ramji - Deputy Head of School | Inflammation, atherosclerosis and regulation of gene expression. |
| Dr Kirsty Richardson (Teaching and Scholarship) | Human cartilage and tissues. |
| Dr Neil Rodrigues (Postgraduate Divisional Tutor) | Haematopoietic stem/progenitor cell biology and its dysregulation in myelodysplasia and myeloid leukaemia. |
| Dr Hannah Shaw (Teaching and Scholarship) | Musculoskeletal system and adipose tissue. |
| Dr Paul Shaw (Honorary) | Clinician with basic-science translational research interests in lung and GI cancers. |
| Dr Florian Siebzehnrubl | Regulation of tumour progression and therapy resistance in brain cancer. |
| Professor Matt Smalley | The role of normal mammary stem and progenitor cells in the generation of breast cancer phenotypic heterogeneity and cancer stem cells. |
| Dr Katherine Smith | Impact of pathogen-driven immune-regulation on inflammatory disorders. |
| Dr Shiby Stephens (Teaching and Scholarship) | Clinical anatomist with research interest in human musculoskeletal pathologies. |
| Dr Ye Dee Tay (Teaching and Scholarship) | Invitro microtube nucleation. |
Our flexible, research-led biomedical courses give you the opportunity to study a wide range of subjects including human physiology; human anatomy; disease processes and their treatment; biochemistry; genetics and microbiology.
