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Clinical Academic Training Office (CATO) has launched a new clinical academic trainee steering committee.
The committee will have an advisory role in two parts: to help the CATO听plan our schedule of events and courses throughout the year, and to inform the CATO听of how we can provide further support and advice for trainee-led initiatives.
The Steering Committee has representatives from all the clinical academic trainee cohorts the CATO supports: the Specialised Foundation Programme (SFP) trainees, Academic Clinical Fellows (ACFs), Clinical Research Training Fellows (CRTFs), Academic Clinical Lecturers (CLs), and Nurses, Midwives and Allied Health Professionals (NMAHPs).
Steering Committee members
- Wentin Chen, Specialised Foundation Programme trainee
I am a specialised foundation programme trainee with an academic placement in Clinical Pharmacology and Cardiovascular Medicine.
- Dena Ettehad, Academic Clinical Fellow
I am an Honorary Clinical Fellow听(ACF) in Primary Care & Population Health.
- Shane Liu, Clinical Research Training Fellow
I am currently an MRC/Fight for Sight Clinical Research Fellow at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital. Prior to this role, I was an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow and an Ophthalmology Registrar at Manchester Royal Eye Hospital. My research focuses on integrating molecular discoveries with clinical data to improve patient outcomes. My present work aims at gaining a deeper understanding of the genetic factors that drive the onset and progression of Fuchs' Endothelial Corneal Dystrophy (FECD), the most prevalent short-tandem repeat expansion-associated disorder characterized in humans to date. Using innovative genotyping techniques and advanced clinical imaging, we aim to discover new molecular insights with clinical relevance, which will ultimately allow for the development of decision support systems that can help to guide personalized medicine and improve risk stratification approaches.
- Will Macken, Academic Clinical Lecturer
I am an early career researcher (Academic Clinical Lecturer) in genomics. I'm based at UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology (Pitceathly Lab) and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (clinical genetics). I studied medicine at University College Dublin and undertook paediatric training in Dublin and London before entering subspecialty training in Clinical Genetics in Southampton. I have completed an MSc in Genomic Medicine at Imperial College London and a PhD in Primary Mitochondrial Disease Genomics with Professors Rob Pitceathly and Mike Hanna and Dr Jana Vandrovcova in UCL. During my PhD I worked as a fellow in the MRC International Centre for Genomic Medicine in Neuromuscular Diseases with a special interest in mitochondrial disease and data diversity in Indian populations with neurological diseases. My research interests focus on translating genomic technologies such as RNA and long-read sequencing to diagnostics and identifying new causes of syndromic genetic diseases. I am very grateful to be funded by the Lily Foundation's precision diagnostics project to which aims to accelerate introduction of new diagnostic pipelines and technologies into the NHS for patients with suspected mitochondrial disease.
- Nicola Maciocia, Academic Clinical Lecturer
I am a haematologist at UCLH and Academic clinical Lecturer in the haematology department at UCL. I work on the development of new chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapies with a particular interest in T-cell malignancies.
- Brooke Nairn, Research Assistant
Originally from Canada, Brooke completed her BSc. in Human Kinetics at the University of Guelph, followed by a Master鈥檚 of Science in Physiotherapy at the University of Limerick, Ireland in 2020. Graduating both programs with distinction, she has won numerous academic awards for her outstanding work. In addition to Brooke鈥檚 research experience in the field of vestibular neurorehabilitation, she draws from a wealth of clinical knowledge and experience. Brooke Nairn is a Chartered Physiotherapist currently working as Research Assistant and PhD candidate on the Horizon Europe funded, TeleRehabilitation decision support systems (TeleRehab DSS) project with the University College London's, Faculty of Brain Sciences. Supervised by Professor Doris-Eva Bamiou and Prof Diego Kaski, she is investigating the artificial intelligence (AI)-supported TeleRehab DSS鈥�, effectiveness and cost compared to the current standard of care for stroke patients with balance problems.
- Alex Ng, Specialised Foundation Programme trainee
Alex graduated from University College London and is currently an Academic FY2 at the Royal Free Hospital. An aspiring Academic Urologist, he is a committee member of the national Urology BURST Research Collaborative. He has been involved in many collaborative research projects, including a 10-year 2,000 patient RALP service evaluation at UCLH, and LEARN, the largest evaluation of undergraduate Urology teaching globally. On an international scale, Alex has a strong foundation with international, multi-centre, prospective, interventional studies, leading on the PRIME, GLIMPSE, ARTS and PARADIGM Trials.
Alex is also passionate about widening access, and led the Virtual Academic Surgery Conference 2021 (495 attendees, 58 countries, 6 continents), and leads the UCL Faculty of Medical Sciences' Widening Access to Medical Sciences Programme. His research interests lie in Uro-Radiology and Prostate Cancer, and will be undertaking his PhD in Prostate Cancer diagnosis.
Outside of work, Alex is a keen photographer and enjoys travelling.听
- Clarissa Oeser, Academic Clinical Lecturer
Clarissa is an NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer with an honorary contract at UKHSA Colindale since 2022. She completed Public Health Training in London and Kent, Surrey and Sussex in 2023, after having trained in Paediatrics in EoE and undertaken a PhD in Molecular Microbiology at St George's, University of London.
Her main research interest is in molecular epidemiology studies for infectious diseases with a focus on paediatric infections. She has extensive experience in the metholodogy and conduct of large surveys which include pathogen biosampling and UKHSA national infection surveillance programmes, as well as clinical trials on paediatric vaccines and antibiotics.
Clarissa has been co-leading the core module 'Molecular Epidemiology for Infectious Diseases' of the 宅男视频 MSc 'Applied Infectious Disease Epidemiology' since 2021. She is also founder and co-chair of a Paediatric Infectious Diseases Epidemiology interest group at UCL and a member of a working group developing a UCL Professional Doctorate in Global Public Health.
- Affie Otunla, Specialised Foundation Programme trainee
Hi! My name is Affie and I am an SFP FY2 working at the Royal Free. My research interests lie predominantly in metabolomics within ischemic kidney injury, and I am working towards a PhD in this topic. Outside of research my hobbies revolve around football, whether it be watching it, playing it, talking about it or thinking about it! I play at least twice a week, and am a die-hard supporter of Manchester united. If at any point you have any questions about the academic clinical pathway, or just want to have a chat about the weekends football, please feel free to drop me an email.
- Cat听Pinho-Gomes, Academic Clinical Lecturer
Cat is an NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Public Health Medicine at the Institute of Health Informatics at UCL and specialty registrar (ST5) in London. She is also honorary lecturer at KCL and the George Institute for Global Health at ICL. She completed medical school in Portugal in 2012 and moved to the UK inspired by her dream of working for the NHS. Although she initially started her specialty training in Cardiothoracic Surgery in Manchester, her long-term illness forced a sharp turn in her career. She completed her DPhil in the University of Oxford, simultaneously with an MSc in Public Health at KCL. She started her specialty training in Public Health in August 2020 as NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow at KCL. She has an insatiable curiosity and broad research interests, which explains why she has been involved in many different types of research over the years. She has finally committed to her two passions: environment/climate & health and gender inequalities. She co-leads the implementation of the Climate & Health Strategy with the Climate & Health Committee of the Faculty of Public Health; is chair of the Specialty Registrars鈥� Committee, which represents registrars nationwide in the Faculty of Public Health; and co-chair of the Academic Public Health Special Interest Group, which she co-founded in 2022.
- Natasha Schoeler, Senior Research Fellow
Natasha is a Senior Research Fellow at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health and Specialist Paediatric Dietitian at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. She specialises in the area of ketogenic diet therapies for neurological conditions, and has worked on genetic laboratory and bioinformatics work, clinical trials, meta-analysis and qualitative research. She completed her PhD on genetic predictors of response to ketogenic diets in 2014 and is the Founder and Chair of the Ketogenic Dietitians Research Network.
- Diana Shroff, Specialisted Foundation Programme trainee
I'm Dr Diana Shroff, an FY2 doctor and rep for the SFP trainees. I currently work in the Royal Free Hospital and my academic work is in Cellular Pathology. I plan to take an FY3 year, before applying to core surgical training/surgical ACF posts.
- Jonathan Wan, Academic Clinical Fellow
Jonathan is an ACF IMT2 in Medical Oncology. His research is on cancer liquid biopsies in the Swanton laboratory at the Francis Crick Institute. He previously carried out his PhD and post-doc in Cambridge and New York. He has cofounded cfdx, an AI neuroscience company.
- Tjasa Zaletel, Specialised Foundation Programme trainee
Hi, my name is Tjasa and I am an academic FY2 doctor and a representative for specialised foundation programme trainees at UCL. My research interests lie in academic surgery, artificial intelligence and innovation, and I am doing my academic placement in Neurology and Neuroscience.
Outside of work I enjoy doing track and field (my event being pole vault!) and seeing as many theatre shows as I can using the 鈥榰nder 30s鈥� discount while I still can.
I am excited to be working with the rest of the committee to organise events and support clinical academics across UCL. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out.听
ACO Staff Members
Tom Muzyka
SFP and Grants Manager
Sarah Mackilligin
UCL IAT Programme Manager
Alex Teale
ADAPT Programme Manager
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