About
I am an infectious disease epidemiologist with expertise in gastrointestinal infections and vaccines, in relation to health inequalities. I am Senior lecturer in the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Gastrointestinal Infections at the University of Liverpool and have recently completed the NIHR Future Focused Leaders - Emerging Leaders Programme.
I hold the role of People and Places Theme Lead within the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Gastrointestinal Infections, where we look to explore socio-economic, environment and behavioural factors in gastrointestinal infections. I also lead the Modelling the Impact and Cost-effectiveness of Vaccination theme in the NIHR funded Global Health Research Group on Gastrointestinal Infections at the University of Liverpool a partnership with Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (Malawi), Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kenya) and Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia).
My main research interests also involve the use of "real world" big data for vaccine evaluations and effectiveness studies, focusing on respiratory and diarrhoeal disease.
I lead the European Rotavirus Surveillance Network (EuroRotaNet) and I am Theme lead for Measuring the Value of Vaccines at the Centre for Global Vaccine Research.
Between 2019 and 2023 I was funded on a NIHR Fellowship. The fellowship was multi-disciplinary, combining epidemiology, laboratory science and modelling to predict risk of rotavirus diarrhoea in vaccinated children. Alongside my fellowship, I led the field work for the Liverpool household COVID-19 community cohort study, COVID-LIV; part of Liverpool’s response to COVID-19. Prior to my fellowship I completed my PhD part-time (2014-2018) at the University of Liverpool, where I assessed rotavirus vaccine impact across health systems in the UK.
Previously I worked for the Health Protection Agency and then Public Health England, specialising in infectious disease surveillance and outbreak investigation and LJMU, Centre for Public Health, developing the Trauma and Injury Intelligence Group surveillance system.
Prizes or Honours
- NIHR Future-Focused Leadership Programme (NIHR, 2021)
- Nominated for participation in the 70th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting (University of Liverpool and The Royal Society, UK, 2019)
- Early career grant for Molecular Biology Organisation Laboratory management course (University of Liverpool, 2019)
- Finalist: Taking Research into Practice for "Reducing susceptibility to measles" (North West Coast Innovation Awards , 2018)
- Winner: Delivering Research in Collaboration 2017 for “Reducing childhood illness through improved vaccination uptake” ( North West Coast Innovation Awards, 2017)
Funded Fellowships
- Post-Doctoral Fellowship (National Institute for Health and Care Research, 2019 - 2023)