Current Staff and Researchers within CHRC

 

Dr Rhona Anderson
Director

Dr Rhona Anderson is a Reader in Radiobiology in the Department of Life Sciences and a member of the Institute of Environment, Health and Societies at Brunel University London. She has recently been elected as Councillor (at large) of the International Association for Radiation Research and was previously (2012-14) Chair of the UK Association for Radiation Research. In 2017 she was awarded Honorary Membership of the Royal College for Radiologists. Rhona started her career as a clinical cytogeneticist in Glasgow in 1994 before developing her research interests in radiation biology at the Medical Research Council Radiation and Genome Stability Unit, Harwell (1996-2005). She gained her PhD from Brunel University in 2004 before taking up a lectureship in 2005.

Julie Whittaker
Centre Manager

Julie joined the CHRC in September 2017 at the start of the project, but has been working for Brunel University London since September 1999, when she joined the Department of Information Systems and Computing (DISC) as an administrator for undergraduate final year projects. Whilst in DISC Julie studied part time with the Open University and was awarded BSc Hons in Computer Science in 2010. During her time at Brunel Julie has taken on several secondments which has allowed her to gain knowledge in a wide range of research areas and activities.

 

Isabella Bastiani
Doctoral Researcher supervised by Dr Rhona Anderson and Dr Liz Ainsbury (Awarded)

Isabella joined the CHRC in August 2017 as a PhD student. Her research investigates the radiation risks from utilizing Radium-223 for the targeted treatment of bone metastatic disease. She is collaborating with Queens University Belfast and Belfast Health and Social Care trust where advanced prostate cancer patients are enrolled on the ADRRAD clinical trial. Isabella previously attended The University of Kent where she graduated with a Biology BSc with Honours in 2017.

Project: Radiation risk from high LET alpha-emitters using radium-223 as a model

George Collett
Doctoral Researcher supervised by Dr Wendy Martin and Dr Rhona Anderson (Awarded)

George joined the CHRC in January 2018 as a PhD student. His research focuses on radiation worry, ageing and cognitive functioning among British Nuclear Test Veterans. He holds a First Class Honours BSc in Psychology from Keele University and a master’s degree, with distinction, in Social Psychology from Lancaster University. Prior to joining the CHRC, he worked as a domiciliary care worker supporting the elderly.

Project: Exposure worry, ageing and cognitive functioning: An in-depth study of British nuclear test veterans

Justin Dankwa
Doctoral Researcher supervised by Dr Rhona Anderson and Dr Cristina Sisu

Justin joined the CHRC in April 2020 as a PhD Student. His research focuses on the impact of mixed radiation and chemicals exposure on neuronal cytotoxicity, ageing and transcription. He holds an Honours BSc in Biochemistry and MSc in Bioinformatics from the University of Leicester. Prior to joining the CHRC, Justin worked for a year with the Neuro, Emergency and Trauma (NET) Clinical Research Team at Imperial College NHS Trust investigating Sepsis.

Project:The impact of mixed radiation and chemicals exposure on neuronal cytotoxicity, ageing and transcription

Amy Prescott
Doctoral Researcher supervised by Professor Louise Mansfield, Dr Alistair John and RDA: Dr Rebecca Hings (Awarded)

Amy joined the CHRC in January 2018 as a PhD student. Her research project aims to understand how community sport and cultural activities may help and contribute to improving the health and wellbeing of British nuclear test veterans and their families. Amy holds a First Class Honours BSc in Sport Science and a master’s degree in Sport Psychology from St Mary’s University, Twickenham. Her master’s research explored male body image issues.

Project: Sport, culture & wellbeing: community approaches to promote wellbeing among British nuclear test veterans and their families

Finlay Smith
Doctoral Researcher supervised by Dr Rhona Anderson and Professor Andreas Kortenkamp

Finlay joined the CHRC in January 2018 as a PhD student. His research focuses on the effects of combined exposures to ionising radiation and genotoxic chemicals in cell-line models. He has a First-Class Honours degree in Chemistry from the University of the West of Scotland, a Scottish Ordinary Degree in Chemistry with Materials from Heriot-Watt University, and is an Associate Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Prior to joining the CHRC Finlay worked for two years with a radiopharmaceutical company supplying radioactive drugs for cancer diagnosis to the NHS.

Project: Assessment of risks from combined exposures to radiation and chemicals

Jade Stephens
Doctoral Researcher supervised by Dr Joanna Bridger and Dr Rhona Anderson

Jade joined the CHRC as a PhD student in January 2018. Her research is to investigate heritable effects of nuclear test veterans and their descendants. This will involve assessing chromosomal abnormalities. She holds an Honours BSc in Bioscience from Canterbury Christ Church University and MSc in Cancer Biology from the University of Kent. Her master’s project was in the field of breast cancer in which she investigated drug resistance and DNA repair.

Project: Heritable effects of pre-conceptual radiation exposure