Funding scientific excellence for the future
As well as funding medical research projects, Action Medical Research also make special funding awards for medical (and sometimes non-medical) graduates to train in research techniques and methodology. Our Research Fellows specialise in subjects relevant to the overall objectives of the Charity, including the field of bioengineering.
The Research Training Fellowship scheme is the cornerstone of Action Medical Research’s commitment to enable the research expertise of the future. By giving the brightest and best graduates the chance to train in research techniques, we are helping to ensure that the first-rate medical research work that Action Medical Research has become synonymous with will continue for another 50 years!
Each year, Action Medical Research awards these prestigious grants to help the brightest and best doctors and scientists develop their career in medical research.
Research Training Fellowship: Dr Manish Sadarangani
Dr Manish Sadarangani is one of our brightest young doctors, with degrees from the Universities of both Oxford and Cambridge. After demonstrating an exceptional talent for research while volunteering to help sick children at a district hospital in Kenya, he is determined to find new ways to combat infectious disease.
Research Training Fellowship: Dr D Eleftheriou
Each year in the UK, hundreds of children suffer a stroke, often with devastating results – two thirds of survivors develop long-term problems, such as movement or learning difficulties, and up to a one third go on to have another stroke.1-5
Research Training Fellowship: Dr Sally Johnson.
Dr Sally Johnson is a talented young doctor committed to caring for children with kidney disease. She's made an outstanding start to her career, but a dire lack of treatment options limits how much she can help some of her young patients.
Research Training Fellowship: Dr Thomas Hiemstra
Although kidney stones are so common, and so damaging to our health, we know very little about what causes them. Dr Thomas Hiemstra is determined to find answers, and hopes his work will eventually lead to new treatments.
Research Training Fellowship: Dr Emma Haughton
Dr Emma Haughton is a talented young scientist who has already published important work on the liver in leading journals. She is determined to develop her laboratory skills still further, to rise to the challenge of finding urgently needed new therapies for people with liver disease.
Research Training Fellowship: Dr Rachel Cooney
When Dr Rachel Cooney specialised in gastroenterology, she was shocked to discover the dearth of treatment options available to people who suffer from the two main inflammatory bowel diseases – Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Many of her patients suffered debilitating symptoms, which can have devastating effects on their whole lives.
Research Training Fellowship: Dr Ben Underwood
Though still young, Dr Ben Underwood already has a long list of awards to his name. After being deeply moved by the plight of his first patients – elderly people with dementia – he is determined to find better ways to treat diseases of the brain. In this Fellowship, Dr Underwood is focusing on Huntington’s disease, a devastating inherited condition.
Research Training Fellowship: Dr S Khanjani
Premature birth is the biggest killer of babies in the UK.1-3,a,b Sadly, around 1,500 babies die here each year after being born too soon.1-3,a,b Many others who survive a very early birth develop lifelong problems such as cerebral palsy, blindness and learning difficulties.
Research Training Fellowship: Dr Valerie Saw.
Dr Valerie Saw is a dedicated and enthusiastic young doctor, who graduated from medical school with the top mark in her year. Now she's focusing her talents on helping patients who suffer a devastating form of blindness, known as MMP.
Research Training Fellowship: Dr Tracey Mills
Dr Tracey Mills has a rare combination of talents, being both an experienced midwife and a skilful laboratory researcher. Through her hard work, she knows only too well the heartbreak that can be associated with fetal growth restriction, a serious complication of pregnancy, for which there are no effective treatments.
Research Training Fellowship: Dr L Islam
Dr Lily Islam is a talented doctor who trained at Cambridge University. While working with blind and partially sighted babies at Great Ormond Street Hospital, she became determined to find better ways to tackle childhood blindness.
Research Training Fellowship: Dr Manju Kurian
After completing medical school at Cambridge University, Dr Manju Kurian specialised in paediatric neurology – caring for children with diseases of the nervous system. She was dismayed to find that some children suffer a range of severe and disabling symptoms, such as seizures, spasticity, blindness and learning difficulties, with limited relief from modern medicine.
Research Training Fellowship: Dr Chris Howell
Dr Chris Howell has seen first hand the devastation that brain tumours can bring during childhood. To get the best chance of survival, many children undergo gruelling treatment with brain surgery, chemotherapy and sometimes radiotherapy.
Sadly, many children still die and survivors can be left with lifelong problems, meaning they have little chance of ever living independently.
Research Training Fellowships
For over 35 years, Action Medical Research has been awarding Research Training Fellowships. In 2008 the charity surveyed past fellows to see how their early training is now impacting on healthcare. Read about this here.