Personal Awards

2008  Fulbright Distinguished Scholar Award

2011  Churchill Fellowship

Group Members

Wei Zhang - Postdoctoral Research Scientist

Sofia Cerdeira - Postdoctoral Clinical Fellow

Carolina Motta-Mejia - PhD Student

William Cooke - Academic Clinical Fellow

Neva Kandzija - DPhil Student

Rannya Ri - DPhil Student

Manjot Gill - Placement Student

Kirsten White - Placement Student

Booniyakat Thammasate - Prince Mahidol Scholar

Past Members:

Vuyane Mholomi - DPhil (Completed) now reading for an MBA at Said Business School

Alexandra Burdujan - placement student

Gavin Collett- Postdoctoral Research Scientist

Sylvia Shahjahan - Technician - now reading medicine at Imperial

Current Funding

2014- Research Grant - Silence Therapeutics

2014 - Research Grant - Roche Diagnostics

2006-2016 - Programme Grant MRC ( 2 yr extension)

2016-2019 - Jannsen Pharamaceuticals Research Grant

2018-2021 - GPADD (Global Platform for the Detection of Autoimmune Diabetes) Helmsley Trust

Opportunities to work with us

We are always keen to hear from people interested in working or studying with us (e.g., potential DPhil, MSc by Research, ERASMUS students, summer students, postdocs). Please contact Dr Vatish by email in the first instance.

There are a number of scholarships that high-calibre candidates can apply for within the University of Oxford as well as the European Union.

BIOGRAPHY

I undertook preclinical medicine at Keble College, Oxford followed by a DPhil at Brasenose College (under the aegis of Dr. Richard Boyd) and I completed clinical training at Cambridge (Queens’ College). Specialist training in obstetrics & gynaecology on the Oxford training rotation was followed by a clinical lectureship at Warwick and senior lectureship/consultant at Warwick. Fulbright and Churchill Fellowships (in New York & Yale) preceded a move back to Oxford in 2013 as Senior Clinical Fellow/Consultant in Obstetrics.

RESEARCH

Pregnancy is generally a time of great happiness and expectation and yet a significant number of pregnancies are affected by diseases such as gestational diabetes and preeclampsia. These diseases cause significant short and long term problems for both the mother and her baby. It is clear that the placenta, the organ responsible for orchestrating the transfer of nutrients and oxygen from the mother to the fetus, is responsible for these diseases since delivery of the baby (and therefore the placenta) cures the diseases. My research focuses on the hormonal signaling between the placenta and the mother and the mechanisms by this signaling can be disrupted in disease. These studies are basic science in nature, but there also clinical studies being undertaken examining the use of circulating placental biomarkers in managing patients with preeclampsia.   More recently, working together with Professors Redman & Sargent we have started to examine the role of placental microvesicles (small particles shed from the surface of the placenta into the maternal circulation) in insulin resistance - a common feature of preeclampsia and gestational diabetes.

I am a clinical academic and practicing obstetrician at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust.  I see patients in clinics as well as on the labour ward and take full part in the on call rota for acute obstetrics at the John Radcliffe Hospital.

Additionally, I am NIHR CRN lead for Division 3 (haematology, genetics, paediatrics and reproductive health) for the Thames Valley and South Midlands providing CRN support for portfolio studies in these specialties.

I am also NIHR National Specialty Lead for Reproductive Health representing the Thames Valley & South Midlands.