Our expertise

Teaching staff

The School of Life Sciences is recognised nationally and internationally for its excellence in research and teaching. The majority of the School’s research reflects broad strength in biomedical science and there are strong links with the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. These relationships provide opportunities to interact with clinicians and translational research at the University Hospitals of North Midlands (UHNM).

Specialist research themes include: molecular biology and ecology of parasites and vectors in tropical diseases; sustainability in crops and control of crop pests, glycobiology and immunology; structural biology; molecular cell biology of apoptosis and its dysregulation; cancer; autoimmune disease; X-ray crystallography; neurobiology and neuroplasticity; neurodegeneration and regeneration; auditory neuroscience and deafness.

You’ll be taught by world-leading researchers and clinical practitioners whose expertise includes apoptosis, proteomics, epigenetics, diabetes, cell and molecular biology, cell physiology and pathology.

Our excellent industry links enable us to invite a range of specialists who share their experience and expertise by giving guest lectures to our students. Previous speakers, for example, have included pharmacists, epidemiologists, mycology professors, reference laboratory managers and clinicians.

Teaching team includes:

• Rebecca Harrison (Programme Director), Senior Lecturer – Rebecca is a HCPC registrant and originally worked as a Senior Biomedical Scientist (BMS) in Microbiology at Royal Stoke University (RSUH) Hospital, obtaining her Specialist Diploma in Medical Microbiology in 2012. She joined Keele in 2016 as a Teaching Fellow before transitioning to a lecturing position in 2019. Made a Senior Lecturer in 2022, Rebecca completed her MA in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Authority. She is the clinical placement coordinator for the BSc Applied Biomedical Science programme, Chair of the School Genetic Modification and Biological Agents Safety Subcommittee and deputy Biological Agent Officer for the University.

• Professor Helen Price, Professor of Parasitology – Helen specialises in the molecular and cell biology of the kinetoplastids Leishmania spp. and Trypanosoma brucei, and stigma associated with cutaneous leishmaniasis. She co-leads ECLIPSE, a four-year £4.6m project funded by the UK's National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), which aims to reduce stigma and improve the patient journey for people living with cutaneous leishmaniasis in Brazil, Ethiopia and Sri Lanka.

• Dr Naomi Forrester-Soto, Reader in Vector Biology – Naomi is a leading ecologist and virologist who has worked on emerging viruses for the past 15 years. Her research focuses on the within-host evolution of RNA viruses, particularly how viruses infect mosquitoes at the molecular level. She spent the majority of her research career at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas. Since moving to Keele in 2018, she has been establishing a similar research programme, as well as branching out to investigate environmental pressures on the mosquito vectors of important viral infections. Her goal is to identify how viruses adapt to their mosquito vectors and how these evolutionary pressures result in successful infection and transmission of the mosquito vector.

• Dr Dan Tonge, Senior Lecturer – Following post-doctoral roles at the School of Veterinary Medicine (Notts) and the MRC, Dan worked as a Senior Scientist for the Health Protection Agency and as Senior Executive Officer at Public Health England. He joined Keele in 2015, and in addition to his teaching and regulatory roles, carries out molecular/bioinformatic projects that require novel thinking and method development to increase our understanding of human disease and disease processes. Dan's recent work has developed and evaluated alternative molecular approaches for the characterisation of a range of microbiomes, investigated the existence of novel microbiome niches, and characterised the complex relationship between host and microbiome in various pathologies.

• Dr Mark Skidmore, Senior Lecturer – Mark joined Keele in 2020, having spent four years as Research Associate at Liverpool University. His research interests centre on carbohydrate chemistry/biochemistry, in particular the role of anionic carbohydrates (for example the glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) as dynamic cell regulators. The major focus of his current research is the study of carbohydrate: protein structure-functions, in particular the development of new tools and technologies for elucidating protein-carbohydrate interactions and their application to biomedical sciences, biological sciences and medicine.

• Dr Marcelo de Lima, Senior Lecturer – Throughout his career, Marcelo has engaged with a wide range of disciplines, from mathematics coupled with spectroscopy to protein cloning and expression, to understand the relationship between the structure and function of relevant biological macromolecules, especially complex carbohydrates. Having joined Keele in 2019, he has been looking into new ways of studying fine cellular structures and processes using super-resolution and CARS (Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Scattering) microscopy by selective labelling and detection.

• Glenn Hussey, Senior Lecturer – Glenn is a HCPC registrant and originally worked as a Specialist Biomedical Scientist (BMS) in Immunology at Royal Stoke University (RSUH) Hospital. He joined the School of Life Sciences as a part-time Teaching Fellow in 2007 and moved onto a Lecturer in Biomedical Science contract in 2009 becoming full-time in 2010. Promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2021, Glenn is the Programme Director for BSc Biomedical Science and Faculty Associate Dean for Education. He is a member of the IBMS Advocacy Steering Group, shaping national policy and is also an approved IBMS accreditor of external programmes.