Editorial Board
The Biochemist is overseen by an Editorial Board made up of active scientists, science communicators and science journalists who set and maintain the policy of the magazine in line with the overall Biochemical Society and Portland Press strategies, policies and ethical guidelines.
Science Editor
Dr Heather Doran
Affiliation: University of Dundee, UK
Biography: Heather is the Public Engagement Manager at the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science, University of Dundee. She is a member of the Public Communication of Science and Technology (PCST) committee and the Local Organising Committee for the PCST Conference 2020. In 2015/2016 she was awarded a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Travel Fellowship on the communication of science travelling to the USA, Japan and China to explore how major research institutes and individual researchers help foster online engagement through social media. Heather began her involvement in public engagement during her PhD in molecular pharmacology at the University of Aberdeen when she was Editor and co-founder of Au Science Magazine.
Editorial Board members
Dr Alan Goddard
Affiliation: Aston University, UK
Biography: Alan is currently a Reader in Biochemistry in the School of Biosciences at Aston University. Before this, he did a BSc and PhD at the University of Warwick in Biological Sciences before morphing into a biochemist during two Postdoctoral positions at Oxford University and a Lectureship in Biochemistry at the University of Lincoln. His research interests focus on the cell membrane in biotechnological applications, mainly in microbes. He teaches across all levels at Aston and is also the Associate Dean of Education for the College.
Roseanna Hare (student representative)
Affiliation: University of Manchester
Biography: Roseanna is currently studying for a PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Manchester. She graduated with an Integrated Master's degree in Biochemistry from the University of Sheffield in 2017, having spent a year at AstraZeneca. Before returning to the lab, Roseanna worked as part of the publishing team at Nature Research.
Dr Shane Hegarty
Affiliation: AXONIS Therapeutics, USA
Biography: Shane is Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder of AXONIS Therapeutics, Cambridge, MA, USA, aiming to advance discoveries from Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard to develop first-in-class therapeutics for neurological disorders. Previously he was a Research Fellow in Neurobiology in Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and a Lecturer in Wentworth Institute of Technology, in Boston, MA, USA. He also previously held a Faculty position in the Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience, University College Cork, Ireland, after completing his PhD and postdoctoral fellowships in this department. His research focuses on the fields of developmental neurobiology, molecular and cellular neuroscience, neurodegeneration, neuroregeneration and neuromodulation, and has been recognized through a number of publications and awards. Shane is also a passionate teacher and committed science communicator.
Associate Professor Matthew D Lloyd
Affiliation: University of Bath, UK
Biography: Matthew Lloyd read biological chemistry at the University of Leicester, followed by a DPhil (PhD) degree at the University of Oxford working on antibiotics and finishing in 1992. After several years of working as a postdoctoral researcher at Brown University, USA and Oxford, Matthew joined the Department of Pharmacy & Pharmacology at the University of Bath in 2002. He is currently a senior lecturer (Associate Professor) in the department. His research focusses on enzymes using techniques from chemical biology, chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biology to understand disease states and develop new treatments, especially for cancer. He is also a 5th Degree Black Belt (International Instructor) in the Ch’ang-Hon (ITF) style of Taekwon-Do.
Dr Derry K Mercer
Affiliation: BIOASTER, France
Biography: Derry is Antimicrobial Programme Head at BIOASTER (Lyon, France) and a visiting Professor at Robert Gordon University. He gained his degree and PhD in microbiology at the University of Liverpool, before working in academia for over a decade. More recently, he has been working in industry on the design and development of novel antimicrobials. Additionally, he has a keen interest in modulation of the role of the immune system in combatting infection and antimicrobial resistance. Derry is also the Honorary Policy Officer for the Biochemical Society.
Dr Maitreyi Shivkumar
Affiliation: De Montfort University, UK
Biography: Maitreyi Shivkumar is a Senior Lecturer in Molecular Biology in the School of Pharmacy at De Montfort University. Her current research focusses on antiviral drug development and understanding host-virus interactions. She completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge on host entry and dissemination of herpesviruses in mouse models. Following this, she was a post-doc at University College London studying HIV-1 spread between T cells, before joining De Montfort University in 2019.
Professor David Smith
Affiliation: Sheffield Hallam University, UK
Biography: David is a National Teaching Fellow and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. His innovative practice has been awarded the Royal Society of Biology HE educator of the year award 2019 and recognised by his students with the Sheffield Hallam University Inspirational Teaching Award for the last ten years. David actively collaborates to develop and disseminate his own and others teaching practices, working both within his university and across the sector in learning, teaching and assessment groups. Through these activities, he builds technology-enhanced learning methods for student engagement in both the classroom and laboratory. Pedagogical publications are centred on student interaction and engagement. His biological research interests combine protein chemistry, cell culture and mass spectrometry to investigate the molecular basis of Parkinson's disease and cancer spheroid models. Studies focus on developing 3D cell culture models and investigating these through proteomics, metabolomics, and imaging technologies.
