1 April 2025

The second round of the King's Health Partners Centre for Translational Medicine (KHP CTM) Predoctoral Clinical Research Excellence Fellowships have been awarded.

It was an extremely competitive field - with 44 applications submitted from across KHP, an increase from last year. The proportion of applications from Nurses, Midwives, and Allied Health Professionals (NMAHPs) also doubled compared to the previous year.

The scheme offers one year pump-prime funding to allow protected research time and training for health professionals working in translational medicine. Development of external funding applications to support a doctorate is expected during the year, and securing further research funding represents a key success metric of the fellowships.

It is anticipated that during the 12-month period of the fellowship, candidates will:

  • Actively pursue their research project, generating data to contribute to a doctoral fellowship application;
  • Engage in research and professional development opportunities, including via the CTM, King’s Clinical Academic Training Office, locally in departments, across KHP and beyond, to support their development as a clinical academic researcher;
  • Prepare scientific/research data to present at meetings where relevant opportunities arise;
  • Prepare a research fellowship application for submission to an external funding body, such as a Research Council, Charity, NIHR, to support a period of doctoral research.

There has already been success from round one of the funding with two of the 10 fellows already securing their PhD funding to begin in 2026.

From 44 applications KHP CTM interviewed 20 and selected 12 to take up this second round of funding - including seven doctors and five NMAHPs. 

  • Luke Baxter - Investigating the Association Between Inflammatory Cytokines and Psilocybin Response in Treatment-Resistant Depression;
  • Mathew Steel - Role of TP53 mutant monocyte macrophages in pathogenesis of TP53 mutant myeloid cancers;
  • Kathryn Biddle - The PAROS Study: Predicting AdveRse Outcome in Sarcoidosis; 
  • Emma Pascall - Improving the reliability of three-dimensional fetal echocardiography through motion corrected slice-to-volume registration and machine learning;
  • Laurence Frei - MRI phenotyping in monochorionic twins – a novel MRI and ultrasound combination to predict and prevent adverse outcomes in pregnancy;
  • Matthew Townend - Brain Age Estimation With Ultra-low-field MRI (BAEWULF);
  • Parisut Kimkool - The Role of the Basophil Activation Test in Enabling Timely Food Introduction During the First Year of Life; 
  • Tofunmi Amusa - Investigating the impact of liver steatosis on hyperglycaemia in pregnancy in mothers of Black ethnicity; enriching the UNiCoRN Study;
  • Keziah Crick - Effects of Machine Perfusion on Cholangiocyte Function in Liver Transplantation;
  • Angela Reddy - Energy expenditure and body composition in motor neurone disease (MND); 
  • Sean Harringto -Light, delirium and outcomes in critically ill adults. Exploring modifiable risk factors and biomarkers of delirium and cognitive impairment: A pilot observational study;
  • Ninoslav Majkic - Development of a medication review tool utilising large language models and generative artificial intelligence.

The Centre for Translational Medicine brings together the organisations of King’s Health Partners and generous funding from the Guy's and St Thomas' Charity to work in partnership to improve the health of people locally, nationally, and globally, accelerating targeted, sustainable and more equitable health outcomes for patients and communities across south east London and beyond.

Find out more about the KHP Centre for Translational Medicine.