Speakers

James A Gallagher

Jim Gallagher is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Liverpool. He held the Derby Chair of Anatomy and Cell Biology at Liverpool from 2007-2020 and is a Past-President of the Bone Research Society, UK and a Fellow of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.  Jim undertook his PhD in Cambridge, on the function of vitamin D in bone.  Following a post-doctoral fellowship in Bern working on bisphosphonates, Jim returned to the UK to Graham Russell’s lab, where he developed the first system to culture human osteoblasts with Jon Beresford.  His group in Liverpool cloned the human P2Y2 receptor and pioneered the investigation of purinergic signalling in bone and skin. Jim has supervised over 40 PhD students, several of whom hold academic positions at UK and international universities including 2 chairs.  In recent years, he has worked with Lakshminarayan Ranganath on the mechanism of arthropathy in the rare genetic disease alkaptonuria and they have identified an effective therapeutic agent, nitisinone, which was approved by the EMA in 2020.  Morphological studies on the severe osteoarticular phenotype in alkaptonuria, in collaboration with Alan Boyde, have revealed new mechanisms of joint destruction that are also observed in more common osteoarthritis.  Jim collaborated with DaisyBeck Productions on the acclaimed Channel 5 documentary “Body Donors”, which won a Royal Television Society Award.

Muhammad Jalil Abbas

I am ST3 in Chemical Pathology in Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals

Qualifications MBBS;MRCP(UK)

Alireza Abdolrasouli

Dr Abdolrasouli is a clinical scientist in medical mycology at the King’s College Hospital, London, UK, and an honorary visiting research fellow in the Department of Infectious Diseases Epidemiology at Imperial College London, where he completed his PhD. Ali obtained an MSc in medical microbiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2006. His main research interests include epidemiology of emerging fungal pathogens, laboratory diagnosis of fungal infections, identification of pathogenic fungi, fungal infections in cystic fibrosis, and antifungal resistance.

Ali has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters. He serves as a reviewer for a wide range of scientific mycology journals and is currently on the editorial board of the Journal of Medical Mycology Case reports. He is an executive committee member of the British Society for Medical Mycology. Ali enjoys teaching and delivers university lectures and contributes to the training of microbiology and infectious diseases clinicians.

Zoie Aiken

Zoie is a Consultant Clinical Scientist in Microbiology and currently works at Manchester Foundation Trust. She has a keen interest in training and education and is currently the lead for STP training in the ACB Microbiology Professional Group and the Lead for the STP end-point examination in Clinical Microbiology, the NSHCS IACC. She passed the FRCPath Part 2 examination at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and has been involved in supporting trainees within her department who have sat the exam since. She hopes that she can pass on some useful tips for those people thinking about taking the exam in the near future.

Lisa Ayers

Training Programme Director

Lisa is the Training Programme Director for the Higher Specialist Scientific Training programme at the National School of Healthcare Science and the Regional Dean for Healthcare Science in the South East. She trained and worked as a Clinical Scientist in Clinical Immunology, during which time she completed a PhD, obtained Fellowship of the Royal College of Pathology by examination, and gained equivalence to join the HSS Register.

Lisa is passionate about developing and expanding training and educational opportunities for Healthcare Scientists at all stages in their career.

Lisa Berry

Biography – Dr Lisa Berry BSc MSc PhD FRCpath

Lisa is a Consultant Clinical Scientist and head of service in virology for Coventry and Warwickshire Pathology Services (CWPS), having qualified as a consultant in 2019 her first consultant post saw her thrown in the deep end dealing with the COVID pandemic, she became head of service in July 2020 following the retirement of her colleague and mentor Dr Judith Timms.  CWPS provides pathology services for 3 acute trusts across Coventry and Warwickshire: University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire NHS trust, George Elliot Hospital NHS trust and South Warwick Hospital NHS Foundation Trust as well primary care in the region.  Her routine duties focus on clinically leading the virology service, virology laboratory diagnostic test interpretation and clinical advice liaison as well as supporting the infection control teams with expert virology advice as required. 

Kristien Boelaert

Professor of Endocrinology, University of Birmingham

Professor Kristient Boelaert is a professor of Endocrinology at the University of Birmingham and a member of the Society for Endocrinology Council. She is the clinical lead for the NICE guidelines on thyroid disease, the national consensus statement on the management of thyroid cancer and the RCOG green top guidelines for the management of thyroid disease in pregnancy. She is currently working on the draft RCOG guidelines for thyroid dysfunction in pregnancy. She is a senior editor for Endocrine Connections and BMC Endocrine Disorders and serves on the editorial board for several endocrine journals including the Lancet, and Diabetes and Endocrinology. Her clinical research interests include the management of thyroid dysfunction, nodules and endocrine disorder in pregnancy.

Kevin Boyd

Dr Kevin Boyd is a Consultant Haematologist at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer at the Institute of Cancer Research, London. He has worked as a doctor in the NHS for almost 25 years, including the last 10 years as a Consultant Haematologist. On the clinical side he is clinical service lead for myeloma at the Royal Marsden Hospital where he carries out several specialist myeloma clinics per week. He is also involved in the regional Haematology Diagnostics Service at the Royal Marsden, which is a regional hub for flow cytometry, histology, cytogenetic and molecular diagnostics for Haematological malignancy.

He has a research interest in myeloma imaging, myeloma genetics and risk stratification, and clinical trials of novel therapies. In his work towards a PhD he designed a genetic risk stratification model that remains in widespread use today. He is currently a member of the myeloma NCRI studies subgroup and is on the trial management group of several national trials including MUK7, MUK12 and Myeloma XII as well as chairing the Trial Steering Committee of the Myeloma XI trial. He is local Principal Investigator for multiple clinical trials and is UK Chief Investigator of the DREAMM-7 study. He is Secretary of the UK Myeloma Forum Guidelines Committee and Chair of the London Clinical Guidelines Group. He is also a clinical advisor to Blood Cancer UK.

Charlotte Brookfield

I work across all the acute adult hospitals in Liverpool with a particular specialist interest in mycobacterial and vascular infections. I am laboratory lead for the microbiology department at Liverpool Clinical Laboratories and have a passion for diagnostic stewardship.

Pronouns: She/Her

John Cain

Dr Cain is a Consultant Radionuclide Radiologist and Neuroradiologist at Royal Preston Hosptial. His daily workload includes acute and elecive CT, MRI central nerveus system imaging, nuclear medicine and PET CT reporting. His specialist interests are paediatric neuroradiology, neurodegenerative disease and molecular imaging in dementia and neuro-oncology.

Jaimini Cegla

Consultant in Metabolic medicine, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

Dr Jaimini Cegla has a specialist interest in lipidology and cardiovascular risk and splits her time between clinical, laboratory and academic research roles. In her clinical role she looks after the Hammersmith Hospital Lipid Service, a one-stop centre for the genetic diagnosis and management of lipid disorders.

Her current research focuses on cardiovascular risk including clinical trials of novel therapeutic agents.

Dr Cegla is a member of the Medical, Scientific and Research Committee of HEART UK, the cholesterol charity. She also sits on the National Cardiovascular Disease Prevention System Leadership Forum, the advisory group of Public Health England for a strategy on cardiovascular disease prevention.

James Connelly

CEO, My Green Lab

One of the most influential leaders in the corporate sustainability and green building movement today, James Connelly is the Chief Executive Officer of My Green Lab. James is a frequent keynote speaker on regenerative design, sustainable business, and laboratory sustainability. He is an avid writer, and his research and commentary have been featured in news outlets such as China Dialogue, CGTN TV, Engineering News Record, Building Green, Trim Tab, Sustainable Brands, and GreenBiz.

Before joining My Green Lab, James was the Vice President of Strategic Growth for the International Living Future Institute, where he led international growth strategy and became a founding board member of Living Future Institute Europe. During his time at ILFI, James created several leading-edge sustainability programs, including Declare, an innovative ingredient transparency label for non-toxic building products, Living Product Challenge, the world’s most advanced sustainability standard for building products, Just, a social equity label for organizations, and Zero Carbon Building Certification. James has won numerous scholarships and awards for his research and work; notably, he received a 2012 Fulbright Fellowship to research on green building rating systems in China, was selected as a Greenbiz 30 under 30 Sustainable Business Leader in 2016, and a Net Zero Energy Trailblazer in 2019.

Andrew Davison

Consultant Clinical Scientist

Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Andrew Davison is a Consultant Clinical Scientist in the department of Clinical Biochemistry and Metabolic Medicine at Liverpool Clinical Laboratories (LCL). He is clinical lead for Research and Development at LCL and laboratory lead for the regional adrenal multidisciplinary team. He also is an Honorary Lecturer in Clinical Biochemistry at the University of Manchester, an Honorary Clinical Fellow at the University of Liverpool and a senior examiner for the Royal College of Pathologists. He is also a member of the European MSACL practical training committee. He completed his NIHR funded PhD at the University of Liverpool studying the impact of nitisinone treatment on the metabolome in patients with Alkaptonuria, and whether nitisinone induced hypertyrosinaemia alters neurotransmitter metabolism. His current research interests include clinical mass spectrometry, alkaptonuria and adrenal disease. He has over 50 peer reviewed publications (>20 first author) and is a member of the editorial board for the journal metabolites. Additionally, he is involved in post graduate teaching and currently supervising a number of research students

Sarah Davies

Principal Clinical Scientist
Department of Clinical Biochemistry & Metabolic Medicine, Liverpool University Hospitals

Helen Dent

Chief Operating Officer

• Joined BIVDA, June 2020
• Prior 11 years at Abbott Diagnostics; Core laboratory managed service contracts and strategic alliances.
• 4 years as National Contracts Manager (Lab Procurement) NHS Blood and Transplant (Filton).
• NHS PASA and NHS Surrey and Sussex Confederation, Pharmaceutical and Vaccine procurement.
• LLM Procurement Law and Policy (University of Nottingham).
• MSc Strategic Procurement & Sustainability (University of Glamorgan).
• MCIPS Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply. (University of Bath)
• Sustainable Procurement Strategy in the NHS (University of Bath)
• IRCA accredited Auditor/Lead Auditor & Environmental Management.
• Passionate about the future of diagnostics for the benefit of patients ensuring that innovation, safety, continuity of supply and competition is paramount in clinical and purchasing decisions at a national, international and local level, to ensure that member companies are supported and enabled to deliver this both individually and collectively with customers as an aligned industry voice.

Renuka Dias

Consultant Paediatrician

Birmingham Children’s Hospital

Dr Renuka Dias is a Consultant Paediatrics and Endocrinologist at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital (BWCH), the clinical lead for diabetes and obesity services at BWCH and co-leads the national highly specialised service for Wolfram syndrome in Birmingham. She has a particular clinical and research interest in disordered metabolism and growth including thyroid dysfunction, obesity and diabetes mellitus.

Lisa Dittmar

Lisa Dittmar leads the Sustainable Supply Chain Engagement work for NHS England. Delivery of the Net Zero Supplier road map and the Evergreen Sustainable Supplier Assessment are key components of NHS England’s Sustainable Supplier Engagement work. Over 60% of the NHS’s emissions come from the supply chain, so it is critical that the whole ecosystem of suppliers and buyers work together to decarbonise. Prior to the NHS, Lisa led the Healthcare and Life Sciences practice in the Net Zero Strategy team within Monitor Deloitte.

Ian Frayling

Ian qualified in Clinical Medicine at Cambridge in 1982, initially trained in Chemical Pathology then moved into genetics, specifically hereditary cancer. He was the only Genetic Pathologist in NHS service until his retirement from NHS Wales in 2019.  He is now President of the Association of Clinical Pathologists and Honorary Consulting Genetic Pathologist to the National Centres for Colorectal Disease in the UK (St Mark’s, Harrow) and Ireland (St Vincent’s, Dublin), as well as an Honorary Senior Clinical Research Fellow in the Inherited Tumour Syndromes Research Group in the Institute of Cancer & Genetics at Cardiff University.

In addition, Ian holds many other positions, including being an assessor for the UK National External Quality Assessment Scheme for Immunocytochemistry & ISH; a Member of Council of the International Society for Gastrointestinal Hereditary Tumours (InSiGHT); a Member of Council of the UK Cancer Genetics Group; an Honorary Medical Advisor to Lynch Syndrome UK & Lynch Syndrome Ireland; and is a member of the Union of European Medical Specialists (UEMS) Board of Laboratory Medicine.

Ian has been conferred with the rare distinction of Honorary Fellowship of the Faculty of Pathology of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, and is a recipient of both the Association of Clinical Pathologists’ Dyke Foundation Medal for his “eminence as a member of the pathology community” and the Pathological Society of Great Britain & Ireland’s Goudie Medal for his “seminal contribution to the science of pathology.”  His publication record includes over 80 peer-reviewed papers, with approximately 8,000 citations and an H-index of 40, plus 70 other publications, including the WHO Classification of Tumours series.  Ian helped establish National Institute for Health & Care Excellence (NICE) Diagnostics Guidance DG27 and later DG42, that all incident bowel and now endometrial cancers must be tested to see if they are due to Lynch syndrome.  However, Ian is now a patient himself suffering from LongCovid since April 2020, and becoming a co-founder of the patient group LongCovidWales.  So, more recently, as an informed expert patient, he has provided input into both NICE and WHO LongCovid guidance, as well as participating as a subject in numerous research studies.

Danielle Freedman

MB BS, FRCPath., EuSpLM

Consultant Chemical Pathologist , Associate Physician in Endocrinology, Director of Pathology, and Joint Medical Director of Bedfordshire Hospitals  

Trained in medicine at the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, University of London, and then further training in Clinical Biochemistry and Endocrinology at the RFHSM and the Middlesex Hospital, University of  London.

Nationally, elected Vice President of Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath) (2008 - 2011)  

National member of the Association for Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine (ACB) Council 2011 - 2015.  Currently, UK member of the (EFLM) Working Group on Post Analytic Phases 2018 to 2022.

Chair of Lab Tests Online Board UK (2012 - ) A Peer reviewed, Non Commercial , Patient Centered website

Main interests include clinical endocrinology, point of care testing and, importantly, the value of   laboratory testing with regard to patient safety and patient outcome.

Over 100 publications in peer review journals including Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA and Annals of Clinical Biochemistry and 10 book chapters.

Nominated as one of the TOP 100 International Power List of Influential Laboratory Medicine Professionals ( November 2015)

In 2018, awarded the very prestigious award of Honorary Membership of the ACB for her International work in Laboratory Medicine.

Naomi Gadsby

Naomi Gadsby has a PhD from the University of Edinburgh and completed her pre- and post-registration clinical scientist training in Medical Microbiology in NHS Lothian. She became a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists by examination in Medical Microbiology in 2017. Since 2019 she has been working as a Consultant Clinical Scientist in Medical Microbiology at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.

Isaac Garcia-Murillas

Dr Isaac Garcia-Murillas is a Staff Scientist at the Breast Cancer Now Research Centre at The Institute of Cancer Research in London where he leads and develops the use of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) and digital PCR (dPCR) technologies to study circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) from liquid biopsies. His research interests converge in the clinical utility of ctDNA as a potential biomarker to detect Minimal Residual Disease, monitor response to treatment, stratify patients to targeted therapies and identify the emergence of drug resistance.

Mark Gurnell

Professor of Clinical Endocrinology, Cambridge University Hospital

Mark Gurnell is a Professor of Clinical Endocrinology at the University of Cambridge and is the Clinical Lead for Adrenal and Pituitary Services at Addenbrooke’s Hospital and the East of England. He serves on the Council of the UK Society for Endocrinology and is a joint editor-in-chief of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism. His research focusses on the development of novel approaches to the investigation and management of adrenal and pituitary disorders. He co-directs a national and international referral service for patients with complex and atypical thyroid function tests.

Cameron Hall

MRC DTP PhD Candidate

Cameron is a second year PhD student at the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on the investigation of biomarkers of traumatic brain injury in vivo and in vitro. This includes protein markers of neuronal and axonal injury, as well as neuroinflammatory response and small-molecule biomarkers. His current research involves the investigation of response to induced metabolic dysfunction in cultured induced human neurons and astrocytes, using this stress model to explore potential therapeutic agents. Whilst future endeavours include the artificial ageing of the cell cultures, co-culturing with supportive glia, and genetic sequencing, with a view to investigating links to neurodegenerative diseases.

Shonagh Haslam

Consultant Clinical Biochemist

Shonagh Haslam is a Consultant Clinical Biochemist at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Royal Preston Hospital, UK and is an honorary lecturer at Manchester University.  Her main interests include the use of pre-analytics and automation and she has a keen interest in both immunoassay and endocrinology, having published in this field.  Clinically one of her particular interests is to define novel roles for Clinical Scientists in providing patient facing services.  She jointly runs weekly lipid clinics with other Clinical Scientists and Endocrinologists. She is also an active member of the Association of Clinical Biochemistry Scientific and Clinical Practice Committee.

Shannon Haymond

Shannon Haymond, PhD MSPA DABCC FAACC AACC President

Dr. Shannon Haymond is the President of AACC. She is Vice Chair for Computational Pathology and Director for Clinical Mass Spectrometry at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. Dr. Haymond is Associate Professor of Pathology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Dr. Haymond’s computational pathology efforts are aimed at building the capacity for advanced data analytics in her department through innovations in infrastructure, education, and research to facilitate data-informed decision making for clinical care, operations, and quality assurance. She recently completed a Master of Science in Predictive Analytics from Northwestern University.

Katy Heaney

Mrs Katy Heaney MSc DipRCPath

Consultant Clinical Scientist, Specialty lead Point of Care Testing

Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust

Berkshire and Surrey Pathology Services

Katy has been working in the NHS and its services for 19 years in Clinical Biochemistry and Point of Care Testing (POCT). Currently employed as the Consultant Specialty lead for POCT for Berkshire and Surrey Pathology Services, the service covers 5 NHS Trusts, with 6 acute medical sites and multiple community services and the Clinical Director of the dedicated ISO accredited POCT EQA scheme, Qpoint. At the end of 2020 Katy was seconded to the Department of Health and Social Care, then later UKHSA, Operational Supplies team as the Point of care workflow programme lead, with the primary aim of providing technical and scientific leadership in the deployment of rapid covid testing into NHS Emergency departments.

Working in POCT requires technical, scientific and clinical expertise from the healthcare scientist workforce. The training day session has opportunity for trainees to gain practical training on POCT kit, understand the technical limitations of the most common of POCT tests and assess the clinical impact of their abilities.

Amanda Helsgrave

Senior Research Fellow

I gained my PhD in neurological studies from UCL in 2005 whilst working as a technician in the Department of Neurochemistry at the Institute of Neurology. After  post-docs investigating kinases and metabolism, and a rare mutation causing hyperinsulinaemic hypoglycemia in infants, I returned to the ION in 2012 to take up a position setting up research into biomarkers of neurodegenerative diseases. Over the last 10 years I have been instrumental in the set up and management of what is now the UKDRI Fluid Biomarker Laboratory, developing new assays and collaborating widely, utilising super sensitive immunoassays to push forward work in this area. I have, along with Prof Henrik Zetterberg (University of Gothenburg/UCL joint appointment) written numerous grants to bring new technology into the lab in order that we can benefit the neurodegenerative research community and utilise the ability of measuring brain relevant proteins in easily accessible body fluids such as blood plasma and serum. My latest venture along with Prof Zetterberg is to bring funds to the laboratory to launch the Biomarker Factory to enable large cohort measurements working alongside clinical colleagues, and the discovery and validation of novel biomarkers that will be essential to monitor and assess future disease modifying therapies.

Natalie Hunt

Principal Clinical Biochemist

Lancashire Teaching Hospitals

Stuart Jones

Anne-Marie Kelly

I have been privileged to work as a Consultant Chemical Pathologist at Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester University Hospital Foundation Trust since 1994. During this time, I have run a Lipid clinic for patients with dyslipidaemia including inherited disorders. Clinical interpretation is one of my key interests and I have therefore become involved in the UK National External Quality Assurance Service (UKNEQAS) for interpretative comments. My other main interest is in medical education, and I hold an honorary Chair in Medical Education with the University of Manchester

Ranganath Lakshminarayan

Professor Lakshminarayan Ranganath (LRR) trained in Chemical Pathology with Professor Vincent Marks and Drs John Wright and Peter Goddard in SW Thames before moving to Liverpool in 1999. LRR obtained his PhD in obesity biology and GLP-1 as a trainee, while also managing a busy endocrine/metabolic investigation unit in Surrey. LRR is now a part-time consultant at the Liverpool University Hospitals Foundation NHS Trust in the UK since 2017. Until 2017, he was a busy Chemical Pathologist working with Professor Alan Shenkin and others managing patients in the lipidology and metabolic bone clinics as well as being part of the team providing a metabolic service. LRR met an alkaptonuria (AKU) patient called Robert Gregory in 2003 and founded the Alkaptonuria Society UK. Since 2003, he has worked on advancing knowledge in AKU in addition to providing the busy service role. LRR established the NHS Highly Specialised Services funded Robert Gregory National Alkaptonuria Centre (NAC), employing off-label use of nitisinone, bringing together a multidisciplinary team of specialists to deliver a single-stop care at annual review for AKU patients in the UK. LRR is the inaugural Director of the NAC. Patients in the NAC have been able to access nitisinone free of charge since 2012. LRR has carried out a national survey that identified 81 UK, 450 European and 1000 patients worldwide. He has pioneered an assessment of AKU patients namely the alkaptonuria severity score index (AKUSSI). LRR was the chief investigator who co-ordinated DevelopAKUre, a European Union-funded international research programme, which involved 3 studies in AKU, including a 4-year randomised nitisinone clinical trial, called SONIA 2, in adults with alkaptonuria. This has bringing advances in AKU to all patients with AKU worldwide. LRR has authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications and supported numerous research students (PhD and MD) into AKU. He now continues to work in AKU and has recently embarked on collaborating with scientists from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in developing nitisinone as vectoricidal drugs in the control of malaria, trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis and others.

Rachael Liebmann

Dr Rachael Liebmann is Group Medical Director of Sonic Healthcare UK and is a past vice president of the Royal College of Pathologists and a consultant breast histopathologist at Queen Victoria Hospital in Sussex, with 20 years’ experience as an NHS consultant. She has held a number of senior roles in the recent past, including membership of the South East Coast Clinical Senate Council, the Advisory Board of the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management, and the Council of the Medical Women’s Federation.

As well as chairing the London, Kent, Surrey and Sussex Speciality Training Committee, Rachael chaired the multidisciplinary Kent and Medway Cancer Network Breast Group for several years, before being appointed Clinical Director of the Kent and Medway Pathology Network - with leadership of all pathology services for a population of 1.7 million. In 2011, she helped to establish RCPath Consulting, a provider of independent authoritative advice on pathology service and commissioning issues nationally.

Previously shortlisted for Clinical Leader of the Year by HSJ and several times voted one of the world’s 100 most influential pathologists in The Pathologist magazine’s Power Lists, Rachael was also awarded the Royal College of Pathologists’ Medal for distinguished service, the highest accolade the College can bestow on one of its Fellows. In the Birthday Honours of 2020 Dr Liebmann was awarded an OBE for her contribution to Pathology.

Finlay MacKenzie

NEQAS - Director and Consultant Clinical Scientist

Rupert Major

Consultant Nephrologist, University Hospitals of Leicester, Leicester, UK

Honorary Associate Professor, Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

Dr Rupert Major, PhD MBChB MRCP(UK) ESE(Neph), studied at the University of Leicester, qualifying as a medical doctor in 2009. Since then, he has pursued a combined clinical-academic career path including National Institute of Health Research academic training posts. His 2018 PhD, funded by Kidney Research UK, focused on cardiovascular risk prediction in chronic kidney disease. Dr Major has developed the Kidney Failure Risk Equation (KFRE) to predict the risk of needing dialysis or kidney transplantation for individuals with chronic kidney disease in the UK. In 2021 KFRE was recommended by NICE. He leads the UK Kidney Association’s KFRE implementation group. Dr Major has published in multiple leading kidney and general medical journals and has presented and received scientific awards at several international medical conferences for his research.

Rachel Marrington

Anna Milan

Consultant Clinical Scientist

Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Anna Milan is a Consultant Clinical Scientist in Biochemistry and Clinical Lead for Training and Education within Liverpool Clinical Laboratories and is an Honorary Senior Lecturer at University of Manchester. Her main interests are clinical mass spectrometry, alkaptonuria, bone disease and endocrinology and she has over 75 peer-reviewed publications.   

Anna is also the current North West ACB Regional Tutor and an active member of the ACB Training and Education Committee. She is passionate about training and education opportunities for all Healthcare Scientists and supports both STP and HSST training programmes at Liverpool.

Masood Moghul

Clinical Research Fellow – Urology (Man Van Project)

I am a final year urology trainee currently pursuing an MD(Res) under the joint supervision of Professor Nick James, Mr Declan Cahill and Professor Ros Eeles. I am working on the Man Van Project which is designed to increase patient access and support to cancer investigation pathways by offering targeted community testing for urological cancers and other health conditions.

Stephen Morley

Martin Myers

Consultant Clinical Biochemist Lancashire Teaching Hospitals

Dr Myers is a consultant clinical biochemist at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (LTH), Royal Preston Hospital, having previously been the associate divisionalmedical director for pathology for 4 years and clinical director of pathology for 14 years. Dr Myers is also the lead scientist for the trust. He chairs the trust Point of Care Testing Committee.

Dr Myers is the Senior Clinical Advisor on the NHS Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT) for Pathology, a member of the Device Expert Advisory Committee (DEAC), chair of the MHRA IVD Expert Advisory Group and Expert Advisor on the DHSC Technology Validation Group (TVG).

Dr Myers has taken a lead role in a continuousprogram of pathology redesign, improving the clinical and operational effectiveness of pathology delivery while improving productivity. His interests include the use of automation, point of care testing and informatics in improving the quality of the diagnostic process and redesigning a pathology delivery that is patient focussed. He has translated the “Laboratory Anywhere” concept to ensure that diagnostics is delivered in a variety of locations both inside and outside the hospital ensuring that diagnostics are embedded in the patient pathway, rather than remote from the patient. He is involved in several projects for the direct delivery of diagnostics to BAME communities and vulnerable groups in the community and worked with the NHSE chief scientific officer’s team on the delivery of point of care diagnostics in patients with learning difficulties and patients experiencing mental health issues. He has also been involved in translating NICE diagnostic recommendations into service delivery models.

Dr Myershas worked on many clinical pathways where the introduction of novel decision diagnostics has improved the patient pathway and resulted in reduction in total pathway costs.

Debbie Nolder

Debbie is a parasitologist and molecular Lead Biomedical Scientist in the UKHSA Malaria Reference Laboratory and Diagnostic Parasitology Laboratory at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Debbie obtained a degree in medical microbiology from Imperial College, and an MSc in clinical parasitology from LSHTM / Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine whilst employed as a clinical scientist at Colindale working on the development of immuno- and molecular diagnostic tests for protozoa associated with HIV infection. Debbie completed her PhD at LSHTM on the genetic diversity, population structure and evolution of Leishmania populations belonging to the South American subgenus, Viannia.

Debbie has spent more than 20 years working in diagnostic parasitology and teaching at LSHTM. Current research interests include malaria (P. falciparum drug resistance, investigation of rapid diagnostic test failures, diagnosis of non-falciparum malaria,) Trypanosoma cruzi (Chagas disease) and Acanthamoeba spp. (Acanthamoeba keratitis, AK). Debbie has published over 25 peer-reviewed papers and serves as a reviewer for a number of journals. Debbie is co-organiser of the LSHTM Advanced Diagnostic Parasitology module, delivers lectures on various MSc courses and to Parasitology / Malaria short-course participants and contributes to the training of visiting clinicians and clinical scientists.

Jane Osbourne

Dr Jane Osborne, Lead Clinical Scientist, RIPL, UK Health Security Agency, Porton Down.

After a PhD in Virology in Glasgow, Jane completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Special Pathogens Branch at CDC Atlanta before joining what was then known as the Centre for Emergency Preparedness and Response at Porton Down. Having become a clinical scientist via the equivalence route and then being granted HSST equivalence, Jane now works as Lead Clinical Scientist at the UKHSA Rare and Imported Pathogens Lab at Porton Down.

Tomris Ozben

Over her tenure at Akdeniz University, Prof. Ozben has been the Vice Rector, Director of the Central Laboratoryof the University Hospital, and Chair of the Dept. of Clinical Biochemistry. She works in the identification of early diagnostic and prognostic markers in cancer, acuteand chronic diseases, liquid biopsy in cancer, validation of new tests, quality control, and laboratory management. She is the Editorial Board member of several Scientific Journals. She has published over 150 papers, edited several books, and invited to speak at more than 200 international conferences.

Javeria Peracha

Senior Clinical Fellow - Renal Medicine

Dr. Javeria Peracha is a renal and general medicine trainee in the West Midlands. Her research interests include developing models of integrated chronic kidney disease (CKD) care that will help improve early detection and management of patients with CKD in the community. She is working with the UK Kidney Association Kidney Failure Risk Equation (KFRE) group to facilitate systems implementation of KFRE including within Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS).

Derren Ready

Derren is a Consultant Clinical Scientist in Public Health Infections at UK Health Security Agency - South West. Previous to this role he worked in the Respiratory and Systemic bacteria reference section at Colindale. His routine duties focus on public health microbiology diagnostic test interpretation, infection prevention control and outbreak management in community, institutional and health and Social Care settings. He has published 78 peer reviewed papers, 8 book chapters and 1 review, and supervised >40 Master level students and 4 PhD students.

Derren is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists, Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health and Honorary Senior Lecturer (University of Bristol)

David Ricketts

Head of Laboratory Process Improvement 

Dr David Ricketts DBMS

David currently works as head of process improvement for Health Service Laboratories in central London, which is part of the wider Sonic Healthcare group and is the managing director of his own Consultancy firm.

David chairs the TC212 mirror committee and is head of delegation for the UK on the international TC212 committee. David has experience in writing standards and was the project lead on ISO22870, on the drafting team of the new ISO15189 as well as being involved in many other standards including ISO22367. David has written many expert commentaries for British Standards. The commentaries are designed to explain the changes in new version of ISO standards and explain how to use them in the laboratory setting, ISO22367 and ISO15190 (safety) are two recent commentaries.

David has a strong background in laboratory process improvement and links this to the needs of compliance with ISO requirements.

David has spoken nationally and internationally on a wide range of subjects including quality and compliance and is speaking on risk and safety as well as the new version of ISO15189 at the IBMS congress.

Fiona Riddoch

Fiona trained as a Clinical Scientist in Biochemistry. Currently employed as a Consultant Clinical Scientist for POCT in Berkshire and Surrey Pathology Services (BSPS); the service covers 5 acute NHS Trusts, and multiple community services. Over the last 5 years she has developed multidisciplinary clinical and technical expertise needed for POCT, and in particular focussing on IT, risk management and analytical & clinical verification of POCT analysers, using these skills to support the BSPS POCT team in achieving accreditation against ISO:15189(2022) for our multi-site blood gas analyser service. She has led the BSPS POCT team on national verification projects, including multiple SARS-CoV-2 and winter multiplex methods on behalf of NHS England, being an exemplary verification and implementation site for POCT in Hospital@Home services; working to provide evidence that can be used nationally to support implementation of POCT CRP and high-sensitivity troponin. She has won national awards for quality improvement projects and clinical audit, by demonstrating clinical impact and patient benefit of pathology services.

Anna Sanders

Principal Clinical Scientist, Department of Clinical Biochemistry 

Sheri Scott

Judith Strachan

Mrs Judith Strachan BSc, FRCPath, EurClincChem

Consultant Clinical Biochemist, Department of Blood Sciences, NHS Tayside, Lead of the Scottish Bowel Screening Laboratory, and Honourary Senior Lecturer, University of Dundee Medical School, Dundee, Scotland, [email protected], a Member of the Association for Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine

A graduate of the University of St Andrews and has worked in NHS Tayside for more than 30 years. Consultant Clinical Scientist in Biochemical Medicine since 2005. Main interests lie within bowel screening, paediatrics and inherited metabolic disease. Designated Consultant overseeing the laboratory aspects of the Scottish Bowel Screening Programme since 2010 and a member of the Scottish Bowel Screening Programme Board, the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry FIT Working Group and member of the NICE Diagnostics Advisory Committee which led to NICE CG30 (published July 2017).

The Scottish Bowel Screening Programme was initiated with a demonstration pilot running from 2000 to 2002 using biennial gFOBT in the 50-69 age range The results of this pilot, along with those from a similar exercise in England, were used to inform a UK National Screening Committee decision to recommend national bowel screening programmes across the UK. Roll-out across the whole of Scotland in the 50-74 age range was complete by December 2009. Led the laboratory aspects of the change from gFOBT to a single quantitative FIT as the screening test beginning November 2017.

Main interest in the laboratory investigation (using FIT) of symptomatic patients presenting with lower bowel symptoms and has published widely on this topic with the wider Dundee research team along with colleagues across Scotland. These publications have undoubtedly stimulated the ubiquitous use of FIT in the assessment of symptomatic patients in the UK. This work led to the Tayside team being awarded a Certificate of Distinction in the UNIVANTS of Healthcare Excellence programme and included the submission on “Use of faecal immunochemical tests (FIT) unlocks the door to efficient and effective investigation of patients with new bowel symptoms”.

Has participated in writing the recommendations from Scottish Government on the use of FIT in the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020: these have proved invaluable in the rational use of the scarce colonoscopy resource available during this time.

Mary Stapleton

Principal Clinical Scientist, Northern Devon Healthcare Trust

Nicolas T Sireau

Nick Sireau, PhD, is the CEO and Chair of Trustees at the AKU Society, a patient group that helps people with AKU, a rare genetic disease affecting two of his children. The AKU Society and Nick are the winners of the 2021 Members Award by EURORDIS (the European Organisation of Rare Diseases) because of their work on successfully developing a new treatment for AKU. Nick is co-founder and Chair of Beacon, an organisation that helps all rare disease patient groups. He is the editor of ‘Rare Diseases: Challenges and Opportunities for Social Entrepreneurs’ (Greenleaf 2013) and of the 'Patient Group Handbook: A Practical Guide for Research and Drug Development' (Beacon 2016). Nick is co-founder and Chair of Orchard OCD, a medical charity that funds research into obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), a common yet debilitating mental health condition. He is also co-founder of Sirgartan Therapeutics, a biotech that focuses on new treatments for OCD. Nick has a BA from Oxford University, an MSc in management studies from the Lyon Graduate School of Business and a PhD in social psychology from City University. He is a fellow of the Ashoka Fellowship of Social Entrepreneurs.

Louise Ward

National Audit Deputy Lead

W Wassif

National Audit Lead

Alexandra Yates

Mrs. Alexandra Yates. Director of Scientific Affairs

Alex, is a Clinical scientist in the biochemistry department at the North Midlands and Cheshire Pathology Service, where her interest include analytical interferences, renal medicine and quality improvement.

Alex was appointed as Directorof Scientific affairs in May 2019 after 5 years on the scientific committee, and a previous role as a national member on the ACB council.  As chair of the scientific and clinical practice committee, her vision is that the scientific committee should serve all ACB members across all disciplines they represent, whilst supporting the fulfillment of the wider ACB strategy, via action such as the scientific scholarships.

Other wider interests include equality and diversity with NHS organizations, Alex is passionate in enacting meaningful change leading to equity for all and recognizing the benefits this bring to the NHS and wider community.