Appointment of Andrew Smith as Chair in Oral Health Sciences

We are delighted to annouce that researcher Andrew Smith, of our Microbial Diseases Department, has been appointed to the Chair in Oral Health Sciences.

Professor Smith originally trained as an immunologist in the Tenovus Cancer Research Institute, Southampton where he conducted his PhD on monoclonal antibody mediated killing of lymphoma and leukaemia.

Following a short, two-year postdoctoral position working on the role of lymphocytes in contact dermatitis and some travel he moved to London to work with Dr Nancy Hogg at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund Institute (now Cancer Research UK) where he studied immune cell adhesion and migration.

In 2005 he was appointed senior postdoctoral scientist in the laboratory of Professor Tony Segal in the Department of Medicine at UCL where he began his research into inflammatory bowel disease and innate immunity.

After a highly successful period of translational research in gastroenterology he was appointed Senior Lecturer in Microbial Diseases at UCL Eastman Dental Institute. He has maintained a strong interest in innate immunity and inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, as well as initiating projects looking into the role of the microbiome in mucosal disease.  He is also currently involved in a number of collaborative research projects with clinicians based across UCLH, as well as international experts in innate immunity and autophagy regulation.

Congratulations Professor!