Meet the Diagnostics North East Steering Group
Dr Michael Wright
Deputy Medical Director, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Chair of Diagnostics North East
Dr Michael Wright
Deputy Medical Director, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Chair of Diagnostics North East
Michael is a Consultant in Clinical Genetics and is Associate Clinical Lecturer at Newcastle University and is Chair of Diagnostics North East.
As Chair of Diagnostics North East Steering Group, Michael strengthens links with fellow partners within this collaboration. He has been involved in one of Diagnostics North East’s partners, the NIHR Diagnostic Evidence Co-operative Newcastle (Newcastle MIC) since it’s conception and throughout its development. It was from this that his role in Diagnostics North East developed.
Clinically, Michael works within The Northern Genetics Service as a paediatric geneticist and is the Co-Clinical Director of the North East and Yorkshire Genomics Medicine Service Alliance. He was one of the founding Directors and ultimately Chair of NewGene Ltd a joint venture between Newcastle Hospitals and Newcastle University providing next generation DNA diagnostic testing.
Research interests
Michael has extensive experience within the NHS as a clinician with expertise in paediatric genetics and molecular medicine and as a medical leader working both within and across local, regional and national NHS structures. He has research interests in the diagnosis and management of rare bone diseases. This includes disorders of connective tissue, tooth development and skeletal dysplasias, a group of disorders characterised by abnormalities of bone growth, all of which provide similar clinical and diagnostic challenges. He is a member of the Newcastle University Rare Disease NuCORE and the NHIP Research and Innovation Strategy Group.
Roles
- Consultant Clinical Geneticist
- Deputy Medical Director at Newcastle Hospitals
- Associate Clinical Lecturer at Newcastle University’s Faculty of Medical Sciences
- Co-Clinical Director North East and Yorkshire Genomic Medicine Service Alliance
- Member Yorkshire Humber and North East Genomic Laboratory Hub Partnership Board
- Member UK Clinical Genomics Clinical Reference Group
- Member Newcastle University Rare Disease NUCORE
Mhairi Anderson
Operations Manager, Diagnostics North East and Therapeutics North East
Mhairi Anderson
Mhairi is the Operations Manager for Diagnostics and Therapeutics North East and plays a key leadership role in the development and delivery of a joint diagnostics and therapeutic strategy in the North East. Mhairi joined the team in December 2022 and is responsible for driving collaboration across partners and creating an ecosystem to support the easy navigation of diagnostics/ therapeutics services.
Having spent the last 10 years working for Newcastle University in a Quality Assurance role, as the Tissue Governance lead in the Newcastle Joint Research Office (NJRO), Mhairi brings many years of experience working across organisational boundaries, driving process improvement, and working with teams to promote engagement. She is also an experienced project manager, and qualified Agile project management practitioner.
With a BSc (Hons) in Pharmacology, and postgraduate diploma in management, Mhairi also brings a decade’s experience of working in multinational Pharmaceutical and Contract Research Organisations, where she led international projects as a Study Director, and laboratory scientist. Mhairi also brings experience from the skills sector, having supported regional skills academies and science ambassador programmes.
Professor Nick Reynolds
Professor of Dermatology and Director of Diagnostics at Newcastle University and Honorary Consultant Dermatologist at Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Professor Nick Reynolds
Professor of Dermatology and Director of Diagnostics at Newcastle University and Honorary Consultant Dermatologist at Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Nick leads a multi-disciplinary service for patients with psoriasis and atopic eczema. He is also Diagnostic lead for the Faculty of Medical Sciences at Newcastle University and is a founding member of Diagnostics North East.
He has a broad interest in precision medicine, systems biology and computational modelling approaches to understanding the mechanism of action of therapeutic agents and predicting individual patient outcomes.
He has been closely involved with BADBIR (British Association of Dermatologists Biologics and Immunomodulators Register) since its inception and has chaired the Research Committee since 2009. As work-strand lead in a multi-centre stratified medicine programme - PSORT (Psoriasis Stratification to Optimise Relevant Therapy), he has contributed particularly to transcriptomic and systems analyses as well as working closely with patient groups. Between 2016 and 2019, he was Director of Newcastle’s MRC/EPSRC Molecular Pathology Node, one of six units established in the UK to bring researchers, clinicians and industry together to develop molecular diagnostic tools for personalized medicine.
He was the inaugural Chair of UK TREND (Translational Research Network in Dermatology), is past president of the European Society for Dermatological Research (ESDR) and was selected as a NIHR Senior Investigator in 2019.
Roles
- NIHR Senior Investigator
- Chair of BADBIR Research Committee
- Diagnostics Lead for Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University
Professor Andrew Blamire
Dean of the Translational and Clinical Research Institute and Professor of Magnetic Resonance Physics in the Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University
Professor Andrew Blamire
Dean of the Translational and Clinical Research Institute and Professor of Magnetic Resonance Physics in the Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University
Andrew Blamire is Dean of the Translational and Clinical Research Institute and Professor of Magnetic Resonance Physics in the Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University.
His research interests focus on the methodological development and clinical application of advanced in vivo imaging technology (Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Positron Emission Tomography). His current and recent research includes studies of muscle structure and function in neuromuscular diseases where he co-leads imaging for large international studies in dysferlinopathy (the JAIN COS study) and coordinated the European BIOIMAGE-NMD consortium, both seeking to establish imaging endpoints as outcome measure for clinical trials in rare diseases.
In neuroimaging he was imaging lead for the international TIRCON study, using quantitative MRI monitoring of therapeutic effect in brain iron storage diseases. He was Director of the Centre for In Vivo Imaging at Newcastle until 2019 when he was appointed Dean of Institute.
Dr Victoria McFarlane Reid
Executive Director for Business, Development and Enterprise
Dr Victoria McFarlane Reid
Executive Director for Business, Development and Enterprise
Vicky started her role as Executive Director for Business, Development and Enterprise for the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals Foundation Trust in September 2019.
Contained within her portfolio are 4 main areas: Strategy and Business Planning, Performance and Contracting, Commercial Enterprise and Service Development. She also has responsibility as Director of Innovation for the North East Innovation Lab which was developed as part of the Integrated Covid Hub North East.
The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is a hugely successful acute trust, with over 18,000 highly skilled staff, dedicated to providing the best possible care for the people of the North East and beyond.
Prior to this, Vicky spent 17 years working for Leica Biosystems, a Danaher company, in the field of Cancer Diagnostics where she was the Director for Research and Development. Vicky has a PhD in Molecular Ecology and a BSc in Biology. She was born in the North East and lives with her wife and 3 dogs in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Professor Alastair David Burt
Director of NovoPath, Theme Lead for Precision Medicine, Genomics and Informatics at Newcastle University and Vice Chair, Integrated Covid Hub NE Innovation Board
Professor Alastair David Burt
Director of NovoPath, Theme Lead for Precision Medicine, Genomics and Informatics at Newcastle University and Vice Chair, Integrated Covid Hub NE Innovation Board
Alastair Burt was born in Dunfermline, Scotland and is a graduate of the University of Glasgow where he obtained a BSc in Pathology with First Class Honours in 1979, MBChB with Commendation in 1981 and MD with Honours and the Bellahouston Medal in 1991.
Upon graduation, he became Junior House Officer in General Medicine with Professor Sir Abraham Goldberg and Junior House Officer in Surgery with Professor Sir David Carter. He subsequently took up training in surgical pathology under the tutelage of Professor Sir Roddy MacSween. During this time, he developed expertise in diagnostic pathology of the liver and a keen interest in the pathogenesis of liver disease and in particular mechanisms of liver fibrosis. In 1985-86 he was a Peel Trust Fellow in the Lab for Cell Biology and Histology at Free University of Brussels under the direction of Professor Eddie Wisse. On return to the UK and completion of his postgraduate training in surgical pathology he moved to the University of Newcastle upon Tyne to become Senior Lecturer in Pathology and Honorary Consultant Histopathologist. He was promoted to a personal Chair in Hepatopathology in 1995 and then the established Chair of Pathology in 1998. He became Dean of Clinical Medicine at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 2005.
He moved to South Australia in January 2013 to take up the post of Dean of Medicine and Head of the School of Medicine. In August 2014, he became acting Executive Dean of the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences and was appointed to the substantive role in December 2014. He continued to maintain an active research interest in liver disease and has published extensively in high quality peer-reviewed journals including Nature, Nature Medicine, Nature Communications, Lancet, N Engl J Med, Gastroenterology, Hepatology. He has an H index of 72 and over 23000 citations.
He has secured over $8m in external grants and has supervised 16 HDR students to completion. He is Editor in Chief of the principal international text book in his field, MacSween’s Pathology of the Liver, now into its 8th edition. In addition, he completed seven years as Editor in Chief of the peer reviewed journal, Histopathology. He was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences in 2015.
As Executive Dean, he successfully led a number of major changes which include restructure of the Faculty, implementation of the most comprehensive Faculty-level professional services reform program in the institution, ‘reimagining’ of the Bachelor of Health Sciences and Psychological Sciences programs and the development of a new Bachelor/MD program in Medicine to achieve AQF level 9 status. He chaired the key governance groups for the development of the $240m Adelaide Health and Medical Sciences building which was officially opened in February 2017 and the governance committees for the redevelopment of the Helen Mayo Buildings. He was a member of the Board of SAHMRI, the Executive of the SA Health Research and Translation Centre and Adelaide BioMed City Partners.
He developed strong partnerships with key stakeholders in the health sector in particular SA Health and its networks and chaired the SA Clinical Training Council. He was awarded Emeritus status by the university in March 2019. He returned to the UK and was appointed Professor of Precision and Molecular Pathology at Newcastle University and Honorary Consultant Histopathologist in November 2019. He is currently Director of NovoPath, Theme Lead for Precision Medicine, Genomics and Informatics at Newcastle University and Vice Chair, Integrated Covid Hub NE Innovation Board.
Professor John Isaacs
Associate Medical Director for Research and Consultant Rheumatologist at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Professor John Isaacs
Associate Medical Director for Research and Consultant Rheumatologist, Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
John Isaacs is Professor of Clinical Rheumatology and Director of Therapeutics North East at Newcastle University and Associate Medical Director for Research and Consultant Rheumatologist at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Over the past 25 years, his work has focused on the potential of novel immunotherapies to treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA), ranging from target identification to early- and late-stage clinical trials.
Professor Isaacs runs a research group focussed on therapeutic tolerance induction, including the development of robust tools for monitoring of immune status. His team has pioneered tolerogenic dendritic cell therapy for inflammatory arthritis patients. He also has a longstanding interest in precision therapeutics for rheumatic disease, and led the Medical Research Council/Association of British Pharmaceutical Industries (MRC/ABPI) RA-MAP consortium, seeking prognostic and therapeutic biomarkers for RA.
In 2019 Prof Isaacs became a National Institute for Health Research Senior Investigator, and is past Chair of the Scientific Committee of the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (2019-20). From 2007 to 2017 Professor Isaacs chaired Arthritis Research UK’s Clinical Study Group for Adult Inflammatory Arthritis, developing a competitive research agenda for the UK.
As Associate Medical Director for Research at Newcastle Hospitals he has developed a research strategy focussed on embedding research into every day patient care.
He also chairs the Research and Innovation Strategy Group for Newcastle Health Innovation Partners (Newcastle’s Academic Health Science Centre), where his focus is to encourage and facilitate cross-partner research with a short-to-medium-term benefit on the health and wealth of the regional population and beyond.
Professor John Simpson
Professor John Simpson
John is a founding member of Diagnostics North East and has been Director of the NIHR Newcastle In Vitro Diagnostic Co-operative (Newcastle MIC) since its origins in 2012 as the previously named NIHR Newcastle Diagnostics Evidence Co-operative (DEC) Newcastle. He led the DEC’s successful bid to become an NIHR MIC in 2017.
His research interests largely focus on infection in critically ill patients. He has been chief investigator for four successfully completed randomised controlled trials, one of which studied a novel diagnostic strategy for ventilator-associated pneumonia in 22 UK intensive care units. His main clinical interests are in pneumonia, pulmonary embolism, and interstitial lung disease.
Roles
- Professor of Respiratory Medicine, Newcastle University
- Honorary consultant in Respiratory Medicine at Newcastle Hospitals
- NIHR Senior Investigator
- Deputy Chair, MRC Clinical Training and Career Development Panel
- Panel member, NIHR Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation (EME) panel
Dr Andrew Sims
Head of Northern Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering Department, Director of the Newcastle External Assessment Centre for the NICE Medical Technology Evaluation Programme, Deputy Director of the NIHR Newcastle In Vitro Diagnostics Co-operative
Dr Andrew Sims
Head of Northern Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering Department, Director of the Newcastle External Assessment Centre for the NICE Medical Technology Evaluation Programme, Deputy Director of the NIHR Newcastle In Vitro Diagnostics Co-operative
Andrew is Head of NMPCE, a Clinical Directorate of Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The Department has 120 NHS staff, and provides services in clinical measurement, clinical engineering, imaging physics and radiation safety, rehabilitation engineering, medical device QA and health technology assessment. It has strong academic links with Newcastle University.
He is Director of the EAC for the NICE Medical Technology Evaluation Programme. One of five such centres nationally, the EAC supports the preparation of national guidance for novel health technologies (devices, diagnostics, procedures) through critical appraisal, systematic review, research facilitation, establishment of clinical registries and technical testing. Andrew is Deputy Director of the NIHR Newcastle In-vitro diagnostics Cooperative which supports evidence generation for novel diagnostics.
He has a BSc and PhD in Physics, an MSc in Statistics and is an HCPC-registered Clinical Scientist. He holds grants as PI or CoI with the NIHR and the Wellcome Trust. He is a member of the NIHR Invention for Innovation Product Development Award funding panel. Current research interests are in health technology assessment and use of real-world data in outcomes research.
Hannah Powell
Chief Operating Officer for Newcastle Health Innovation Partners (NHIP)
Hannah Powell
Chief Operating Officer for Newcastle Health Innovation Partners (NHIP)
Hannah is the Chief Operating Officer for Newcastle Health Innovation Partners (NHIP), one of eight Academic Health Science Centres in England to have been jointly designated by NIHR and NHS England.
Hannah’s role as Chief Operating Officer is to lead partnership working across NHIP and beyond, harnessing strategic alignment to improve health and care through increased translation of discoveries from early scientific research into patient benefit.
Hannah has over 15 years’ experience in demanding senior leadership positions in the NHS in the North East region, mostly in the operational delivery of large-scale clinical services in acute hospital Trusts.
Prior to joining NHIP, Hannah spent a number of years as Directorate Manager for clinical research in Newcastle Hospitals where she developed and commenced implementation of its current research strategy, whilst simultaneously enhancing research performance and culture through collaborative working on new models of research delivery.
During that same period, Hannah was also responsible for the successful rapid mobilisation of the regional Nightingale Hospital North East and the first regional hub for COVID vaccination research.
She is passionate about partnership working, continuous improvement and leadership development. In addition to holding an MSc in Health and Public Leadership, Hannah is a qualified coach and facilitator of action learning sets for NHS leaders across the country.
Russell Watkins
Commercial Director at the Academic Health Science Network for the North East and North Cumbria
Russell Watkins
Commercial Director at the Academic Health Science Network for the North East and North Cumbria
Russ is the Commercial Director at the AHSN NENC and oversees the Economic Growth team.
He is passionate about supporting innovators looking to develop products for the NHS. Russ has held a variety of roles in the NHS throughout the North East and uses his experiences of over 20 years to ensure that innovators understand the complexity of the NHS and how best to navigate it.