LabMed supports pioneering research through 2025 grant awards

Emma Crossley

Understanding PCSK9 and inflammation in critical illness

Awarded to: Emma Crossley
Grant value: £7,700

Emma Crossley, a final-year PhD candidate at the Wellcome–Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine, Queen’s University Belfast, is investigating the role of Proprotein Convertase Subtilisin/Kexin type 9 (PCSK9) in life-threatening respiratory disease.

With a background in biochemistry and a growing research focus in respiratory and critical care, Emma is exploring how PCSK9 contributes to inflammation in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) — a condition with high mortality rates and no current pharmacological treatments.

This grant will enable Emma to deepen her investigation into the mechanistic role of PCSK9 in ARDS, including its impact on alveolar fluid clearance. Her work may also help reveal whether PCSK9 inhibitors, already licensed for dyslipidaemia, could be repurposed as a novel therapeutic strategy for ARDS.

Harry Thynne

Improving prediction of renal transplant outcomes

Awarded to: Harry Thynne
Grant value: £8,000

Harry Thynne, a Clinical Scientist in Virology and Molecular Pathology at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, has been awarded funding to enhance understanding of renal transplant outcomes.

His project will investigate whether temporal changes in Torque Teno virus (TTV) levels offer a more accurate predictor of disease progression in kidney transplant recipients (KTRs) previously infected with CMV. While earlier studies have focused on defining standardised TTV cut-off values, Harry’s research will instead examine how individual deviations from a patient’s own baseline could better indicate risk following CMV reactivation.

The findings have the potential to strengthen personalised monitoring strategies and improve long-term management for transplant patients.

Sally Hanton

Exploring free lambda light chains in multiple sclerosis

Awarded to: Sally Hanton
Grant value: £4,160.94

Principal Clinical Scientist Sally Hanton has been funded to investigate the diagnostic and clinical relevance of free lambda light chains (λFLC) in cerebrospinal fluid from patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).

Part of a broader programme within the Neuroscience Laboratories at the Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust, this study aims to use electrophoretic methods to detect and measure λFLC in CSF and assess how these findings correlate with clinical outcomes. Although κFLC measurement is increasingly established in MS diagnosis, the behaviour and utility of λFLC remains less well understood.

Sally brings extensive research experience, having completed a PhD and six years of postdoctoral work in intracellular protein transport before retraining as a clinical scientist in 2009. Her current interests include novel protein and autoantibody detection in neurological disease, alongside therapeutic drug monitoring using UPLC-MS/MS.