My profile

Biography

I am a research active academic with an international reputation in molecular psychiatry and neuroendocrinology. I publish regularly in high impact journals (Google Scholar: h-index 33; Citations 4714) and generate grant come as both PI and Co-I with national and international collaborations (~£6.7m). I use my research background to develop and delivery research-informed teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. I have supervised 14 PhD students and 9 MRes Students.

Academic and professional qualifications

Diplomas, Academic training:

  • Doctorate (Dr. rerum. Naturalium - magna cum laude); Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) Munich, (Germany), 2000-2005 Thesis: Impaired repression of a vasopression promoter polymorphism in a rat model of trait anxiety and depression.
  • MSc Medical Genetics; Department of Human Genetics, University of Newcastle, 1997-1998 Thesis: Alpha-synuclein polymorphisms in Lewy body dementia.
  • BSc Genetics; Swansea University, Wales (UK), 1994-1997 Thesis: Inheritance of plant height and branching in Pelagonia

Professional Certificates:

  • Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP); Manchester Metropolitan University, 2014.
  • FELASA-B (Federation for European Laboratory Animal Science Associations) animal license for injections/biopsies/blood measurements/collection; Gesellschaft für wissenschaften Tierschutz, Munich, 2010

Academic Citizenship and Leadership

I undertake several management and leadership roles within the Department where I offer mentorship of junior staff – supervision of postdoctoral researchers and supervision of PhD / MRes students. I am the Research Lead for the Aging and Lifelong Health Theme within the Centre for Bioscience.

Publications,  Presentations & OUTREACH

I publish regularly in my field (see Google Scholar link) and I am invited to speak at national and international conferences. In addition to my research and academic work, I am keenly involved in public engagement in science and have published two books for the general reader Power of the Gene: The Origin and Impact of Genetic Disorders (2011, Nova Science Publishers Inc) and Conversational Genetics (2020, independently published) and maintain a website on clinical epigenetics for the public http://www.powerofthegene.com.

External roles

Reviewer for external funding bodies: I am a regular assessor for Innovate UK (2016 - ) and overseas grant panel evaluator for the National Science Centre Poland (2018-). I regularly review grants from national (e.g. MRC, BBSRC, ESRC, NERC) and international (inc. Netherlands, Australia, Canada, Poland Czech Republic, Germany) funding bodies.

Journal reviewing: I regularly act as a reviewer for numerous journals each year (I try to accept at least 10 a year in addition to my editorial roles) and have reviewed for possibly 100 different journals.

Examiner for PhD theses: I have internally examined and chaired within the MMU and acted as an external examiner for <15 thesis’ from national and international universities.

Editorial Board membership: Gene (2012 - 2017), BMC Research Notes (2011 - ), Frontiers in Epigenomics (2013 - ), Scientific Reports (2016 -), Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease (2013 - 2018), Associate Editor for Epigenetics (2020 - ), Section Editor for Epigenetic Techniques Epigenetic Reports (2023- )

Guest-editing - Historical medical genetics: skeletal disorders. Gene (2013); Historical Medical Genetics II. Gene (2015); Historical Medical Genetics III. Gene (2015); The Exposome. Scientific Reports (open 2022).

External examiner for degree courses: Liverpool U, MRes Translational Medicine (2016-2021); Coventry U, BSc Human Biosciences (2014-2019); Hong Kong, BSc Human Biosciences (2016-2019).

Activity in national/international meetings: I have organised symposia and have been invited to speak at >100 conferences, symposiums and meetings.

Membership of scientific societies: Biochemical Society (Panel member from 2012 to 2017, grant reviewer and MMU local ambassador 2017-); European Neuropeptide Club; Epigenetics Society; British Neuroendocrine Society; ISN International Society for Neurochemistry.

Industry engagement: I have and continue to work with several industries and am very open to collaborations

Community engagement: I have worked with charities and foundations on the role of epigenetics and mental health, such as the William Templeton Foundation, and been funded by the UKRI to deliver outreach sessions on the brain to school children together with the company Xplore!.

Public engagement: I deliver talks and lessons to Schools at primary, secondary and sixth-form levels U3A events, Café Scientific and SciBar on genetics, clinical genetics, neuroendocrinology of stress or my research. and I am a registered speaker with Speakeazy. My research has received media attention from the BBC and other national and international news outlets.

Languages

English and German

Personal website address

www.powerofthegene.com

Teaching

I am actively involved in Teaching and since 2013 I have continued to run the level 6 unit entitled Physiology of Ageing which continues to achieve high student satisfaction and good marks. I also continue to teach on other units, deliver tutorials and supervise practical classes.

I deliver excellent undergraduate research projects including laboratory-based and meta-analyses as examples of good practice in research-led teaching. I am the first in the department and perhaps Man Met (as far as I am aware) to publish an undergraduate thesis (in its entirety) with the student as 1st author in high-impact peer-reviewed journals in each of the last 5 years. These include lab projects and meta-analyses e.g. Bezuch N, Bradburn S, McPhee J, Murgatroyd C, Association of interleukin-6 rs1800796 polymorphism with reduced cognitive performance in healthy older adults. Meta Gene (2018) 19:51-55; Tolkien K, Bradburn S, Murgatroyd C, An anti-inflammatory diet as a potential intervention for depressive disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Clinical Nutrition (2018) 18; 32540-8.; Ashley S, Bradburn S, Murgatroyd C. A meta-analysis of peripheral tocopherol levels in age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease. Nutritional Neuroscience. (2019) 29:1-15).

To support my teaching I have designed and maintained a website (www.powerofthegene.com), based on a previously published book of mine The Power of the Gene, which receives ~5000 hits a month and is regularly used by my students. I have also published a new paperback book on genetics, Conversational GeneticsISBN-13:979-8663441629. To highlight my novelty in teaching, I was the first, with a colleague, Michael Carroll, to produce and edits numerous videos to support the different practical classes that I supervised – this allowed the students to see the exact techniques being used and follow. These videos are still widely used by other members of staff now leading these practicals. I have also been an external examiner for courses and programmes at other Universities including Liverpool University, MRes Translational Medicine (2016-2021); Coventry University, BSc Human Biosciences (2014-2019); Hong Kong, BSc Human Biosciences (2016-2019).

Supervision

Research outputs

Study of gene-environment interactions in early-life ageing. I work on mouse and rat models and human cohorts following early-life environmental exposures and study the epigentic mechanisms underlying programming of long-term gene regulatory changes.