Science Committee

Dr Joe Standing

Principal Research Associate, UCL GOS Institute of Child Health

Science Committee Member

Joe Standing is an academic pharmacist based in the Mathematical Modelling Section of the Infection, Immunity and Inflammation division at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health. He leads the newly established NIHR UCL Antimicrobial Pharmacodynamics (hollow fibre) research facility, and since 2010 has been the Antimicrobial Pharmacist at Great Ormond Street Hospital. The Paediatric Pharmacometrics research group Joe leads focuses on a range of quantitative clinical pharmacology questions with a primary emphasis on infection and immunity, and in particular drug development of anti-infective agents. Funding includes grants from MRC, Wellcome, NIHR and the EU (FP-7 and H2020). Joe has worked with several academic and industry partners at various stages of antimicrobial, antifungal and antiviral development, and served for 3 years on the European Medicines Agency Modelling and Simulation Working Group.

Dr Tina Joshi

Associate Professor, University of Plymouth

Science Committee Member

Dr Tina (Lovleen) Joshi is an Associate Professor in Molecular Microbiology at the University of Plymouth. While studying for her PhD in Pharmaceutical Microbiology at Cardiff University, she specialised in the development of a diagnostic assay to detect the pathogen Clostridium difficile at point-of-care, leading to two granted patents as inventor. Afterwards, she held postdoctoral positions at Cardiff University, where Joshi developed novel point-of-care diagnostic tests for pathogens including MRSA and Bacillus anthracis. She joined the University of Plymouth in August 2017.

Tina has transferred her diagnostics knowledge to the key challenge of developing novel and easy-to-use diagnostics for detection of antibiotic resistant bacteria in infected patients at their bedside/initial consultation. This research has been featured on the BBC One documentary “The Truth about Antibiotics”. Diagnostics, and new antibiotics, are imperative in the war against antibiotic resistant bacteria and will aid clinicians to diagnose infections and undertake appropriate antibiotic stewardship. Moreover, Tina has a strong interest in effective infection control practices in hospital environments and the use of appropriate disinfectants to prevent transmission of resistant bacteria.

Tina wanted to be involved with ANTRUK as she believes that charity is supporting critical research in the area of antibiotic discovery. The charity is also undertaking important engagement activities to help the public and policy-makers understand more about the devastating impacts of antibiotic resistance. Tina hopes that she can provide relevant expertise to the scientific committee and assist in spreading the message about antibiotic resistance, infection prevention and the charity’s vital research.

Dr Mark Sutton

Scientific Leader – Healthcare Biotechnology at Health Protection Agency

Science Committee Member

Dr J. Mark Sutton obtained a PhD in Molecular Microbiology working at the John Innes Institute, Norwich in 1994. During his PhD, he developed a range of expertise in molecular genetics, molecular biology, protein chemistry, recombinant protein purification and microbiology. His PhD was followed by BBSRC-funded post-doctoral fellowships at John Innes and the University of Leeds (1994-1997), working on the generation of disease resistant transgenic plants.

Mark joined the Centre for Applied Microbiology and Research (CAMR), Porton Down in 1997 (which became part of the Health Protection Agency in 2003 and Public Health England in 2013) and worked on a series of commercially funded studies aiming to develop new medicines derived from the properties of botulinum neurotoxin and other bacterial toxins. This developed a range of skills in molecular microbiology, protein purification, protein structure function analysis and therapeutic development. The work led to a spin out company, Syntaxin Ltd (Now acquired by Ipsen Pharmaceuticals). He spent 10 years leading a series of projects focussed on preventing the transmission of variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (vCJD). These studies led to presentations to UK government advisory groups, with work cited in risks assessments and guidance documents.

Dr Sutton became a Scientific Leader for Healthcare Biotechnology in 2009 and manages the Technology Development Group, an interdisciplinary research group within PHE’s National Infections Service. The group focusses on developing and evaluating new interventions for the treatment of healthcare associated infections (HCAIs) and antimicrobial resistance. The group developed models to assess applied infection control methods (decontamination, disinfection) and to evaluate new antimicrobial agents, working with a number of chemistry, pharmacy, physical science, electrical engineering and microbiology groups worldwide. The group established a screening and evaluation pathway for assessing the efficacy of new antimicrobials and to enable analysis of resistance that emerges during exposure to antibiotics. This uses a range of in vitro assays, in vivo infection models, with molecular genetics and embedded whole genome sequencing used to understand susceptibility and the emergence of resistance.

Mark is a visiting Senior Lecturer at King’s College London and represents PHE on a number of advisory boards and committees, nationally and internationally. He is author on more than 60 peer-reviewed publications and a named inventor on 16 patent families, filed internationally.

Professor Chris Schofield

Professor and Head of Organic Chemistry, University of Oxford

Science Committee Member

Professor Christopher Schofield, FRS is Professor and Head of Organic Chemistry at the University of Oxford, and has world class expertise in the chemical biology of the hypoxic response in humans and other animals with breakthrough work in the field including the identification of the hypoxia inducing factor/hydroxylases and the JmjC prolyl family of oxygenases.

Chris has published >200 relevant papers (including in ACIE, JACS, Cell, Nature, Nat. Chem., Nat. Commun., PNAS, Science, Science Transl. Med.; >20000 citations; h-index >65). His group is highly collaborative and has been involved in multiple major research initiatives, including the EPSRC Synthesis for Biology and Medicine CDT, Oxford Center for Molecular Science, the Target Discovery Initiate, and others; he has career income for his group’s research of >£15m. Chris and his group are particularly interested in metallo-proteases and the variety of unusual enzymes involved in antibiotic biosynthesis; the carbapenems and clavam families of β-lactams are of particular interest.

Dr David Wareham

Clinical Senior Lecturer / Honorary Consultant in Microbiology, Centre for Immunology and Infectious Disease, Blizard Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry

Ex-Officio Member

David Wareham qualified (MBBS) from the London Hospital Medical College in 1994 and trained in general medicine before specialist training in Medical Microbiology (FRCPath).

He was awarded a Clinical Training Fellowship to study aspects of Pseudomonas aeruginosa pathogenicity at Queen Mary University in 2002 and appointed as Senior Clinical Lecturer in Microbiology in July 2005 (PhD).

David is an Honorary Consultant Microbiologist at Barts Health NHS Trust responsible for aspects of intensive care microbiology. He heads the Antimicrobial Research Group which is involved in characterizing the mechanisms underlying the development and persistence of antimicrobial resistance as well as the consequences this may have on the organism and its capacity to cause human disease. This combines genomics, molecular biology, in-vitro and in-vivo (invertebrates) studies, epidemiological and clinical data in an attempt to dissect the complex relationship between host, pathogen and resistance. Research is driven by problems encountered in daily clinical practice and in recent years has focused on multi-drug resistant Gram-negative bacteria such as Acinetobacter baumannii, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia and carbapenem resistant Enterobacteria. Areas of particular interest include the identification of novel resistance determinants, evaluation of novel antimicrobial treatments, pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic analysis of new and repurposed combination therapies, virulence studies of emerging pathogens and interventions to prevent the spread of resistant organisms in the hospital environment.