UCL-TB Steering Group

Professor Marc Lipman

Director of UCL-TB

Marc is Professor of Medicine, UCL and Consultant Physician in Respiratory & HIV Medicine, Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.

He trained in Clinical Academic Medicine in Cambridge, London, and as a Harkness Fellow in Baltimore, based at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Aside from heading up a large clinical TB & HIV service, his recent commitments include: UK NICE TB Clinical Guidelines Development & Service Delivery Groups; Public Health England National Respiratory Programme Board and the TB National Knowledge Project; UK MDR TB Expert Advisory Group and the WHO/European Respiratory Society MDR TB Consilium.

Professor Ibrahim Abubakar

Ibrahim is Dean of the UCL Faculty of Population Health Sciences and Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology. He was previously Director of the UCL Institute for Global Health (IGH), and prior to his appointment at UCL, he was head of TB Section at Public Health England (PHE) and Professor in Health Protection at the Norwich Medical School.

Professor Sanjib Bhakta

Sanjib is Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Biochemistry, Strategic Dean (Internationalisation and Partnership) and Programme Director of Global Infectious Diseases at the Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology, Birkbeck, University of London and an Honorary Professor at the UCL.

He has a long-term research interest in infectious bacterial diseases, focused on developing novel therapeutics as well as repurposing existing drugs to tackle antibiotic resistance and persistence in tuberculosis.

Professor Angela Crook

Angela is a Senior Statistician at the MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL. She is a medical statistician with more than 25 years experience working in health research, covering a range of diseases and including roles in public health and the pharmaceutical industry. She joined the MRC CTU in 2007 and has been working in TB clinical trials since 2010. Angela is currently the statistical lead for the programme of adult and paediatric respiratory infections trials.

Dr Hanif Esmail

Hanif is Clinical Associate Professor in Infectious Diseases, with a joint position between the MRC CTU and the Institute for Global Health at UCL, as well as being an Honorary Consultant in Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine at University College London Hospitals.

His research mainly focuses on optimal diagnostic and treatment approaches for early TB disease, and on pragmatic, person-centred management of drug resistant TB in decentralised settings

Dr Louis Grandjean

Louis is Clinical Associate Professor and Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Infectious Diseases in the Department of Infection, Immunity & Inflammation, and in the UCL GOS Institute of Child Health.

Dr David Lowe

David is a Consultant in Immunology at the Royal Free Hospital. His main area of research is primary immune deficiency.

Professor Tim McHugh

Tim is Professor of Medical Microbiology and Director, of the UCL Centre for Clinical Microbiology within the Division of Infection & Immunity, UCL.

Tim's group contribute to all stages of the TB drug development pathway with projects on evaluation of new compounds as well as supporting the laboratory aspects of clinical trials. An underlying theme is the development of biomarkers of treatment outcome, whether transcriptomic analysis of in vitro treatments or the more complex picture of monitoring outcome in patients.

Dr Robert Miller

Rob is Reader in Clinical Infection in the Research Department of Infection & Population Health, in the UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health.

Dr Ilaria Motta

Ilaria is Principal Clinical Research Fellow at the MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL and she is involved in the UNITE4TB project and PARADIGM4TB clinical trials. She is an infectious diseases physician with experience in managing HIV and TB infections in resource limited settings. In 2018, she obtained her PhD in pharmacokinetics of TB drugs. From 2017 till 2023 she worked as Medical Monitor for the TB-PRACTECAL Clinical Trial with MSF-UK, and she collaborates as a clinical adviser to the EndTB clinical trial with MSF-France and as TB Medical Referent for MSF-Access Campaign. She has recently completed her MSc in Public Health.

Professor Mahdad Noursadeghi

Mahdad is Professor of Infectious Diseases within the UCL Division of Infection & Immunity. He studied Medicine at Guy's Hospital followed by postgraduate training in General Medicine at the National Hospital at Queen Square, Royal Brompton Hospital, Hammersmith Hospital and Newham General Hospital.

Dr Jess Potter

Jess is lead of the TB service at North Middlesex University Hospital in London.

She is co-chair of the network UK Academics and Professionals to End TB and advocacy lead for the European network TBnet. Jess is a qualitative researcher interested in access to health care and the structural conditions that shape these experiences.

Professor Lele Rangaka

Lele is Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology & Public Health within the UCL Institute of Global Health, and is also affiliated to the MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL and is an honorary Associate Professor at the University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa.

She is an Infectious Disease Clinical Scientist with >15 years experience, her research areas span HIV/TB epidemiology, randomized assessments of public health technology, digital health innovation and implementation science. She conducts clinical trials of TB prevention focusing on integrating biomedical and non-biomedical strategies across multimorbidities, innovation in adherence monitoring, diagnostics and m-health.

Dr Emily Shaw

Emily is an Infectious Diseases Consultant with a joint appointment at University College London Hospitals and the UKHSA National Tuberculosis Unit. She trained in London and has delivered TB care in high-burden settings, including for the Medecins Sans Frontieres MDR-TB programme in Uzbekistan. Her Wellcome UCL PhD was in BCG vaccinology and she is a tutor on TB on the LSHTM DTM&H. Dr Shaw works with Find and Treat piloting the delivery of LTBI care in HM Prisons and Immigration Removal Centres.

Dr Delane Shingadia

Delane is a Consultant in Paediatric Infectious Diseases at Great Ormond Street Hospital and Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Institute of Child Health (UCL).

Professor Al Story

Al is founder, Clinical Lead and manager of the pan-London Find and Treat Service based out of University College London Hospitals. His core expertise is in tackling tuberculosis and other communicable diseases among homeless people, drug and alcohol users, prisoners and destitute migrants. His research interests include outreach, integrating point of care diagnostics on the street, case management, the inclusion of service users within MDTs and the use of mobile internet technologies to promote engagement with health services and treatment continuity.

Dr Conor Tweed

Conor is a physician specialising in respiratory medicine and Honorary Clinical Assistant Professor based at the MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL. He is currently working as a Senior Clinical Fellow with the UNITE4TB Consortium.

His current research interests are statistical methodology and clinical trial design, patient and public involvement, and patient-centred research relating to tuberculosis and other mycobacterial disease.

Professor Sir Ali Zumla

Ali is Professor of Infectious Diseases & International Health in the Division of Infection & Immunity. He is an honours graduate of the University of Zambia and the University of London. He is dually qualified in medicine (MBChB) and science (PhD) and is accredited in internal medicine, infectious diseases and clinical immunology.