Many congratulations to Adam Handel, Laurel Morris and Kanmin Xue, who have all been awarded the title of Associate Professor.
Associate Professor Handel is an MRC New Investigator and leads the Oxford Autoimmune Neurology Group, which looks at different aspects of the immune system in autoimmune conditions affecting the central nervous system (CNS). His research aims to understand the clinical features and the molecular immunopathogenesis of neuroinflammatory conditions, with a particular focus on autoimmune encephalitis.
Associate Professor Morris is a cognitive neuroscientist who specialises in the development of novel cognitive and digital measures of motivation, self-agency, and reward and punishment processing. She also specializes in optimizing high-resolution multi-modal neuroimaging techniques for precision imaging and in the application biofeedback-based interventions for psychiatric symptom management. Her work applies these measures and tools to better understand depression, anxiety and addiction.
Associate Professor Kanmin Xue is a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Career Development Fellow and Honorary Consultant Vitreoretinal Surgeon at Oxford University Hospitals and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. He leads the Retinal Disease and Repair Group, which is focused on investigating the mechanism of retinal degeneration and inflammation in the context of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), inherited retinal dystrophies (IRDs) and uveitis. Improving the understanding of these diseases supports the development of new advanced therapies, including viral and non-viral gene therapy, genome editing, and antisense oligonucleotide therapy. Through multidisciplinary collaborations, he is also contributing to better understanding of early retinal development in premature infants and application of machine learning to clinical and scientific research.