Meet the Network Committee
The network is run by a committee of fellows who represent many of our major fellowship programmes. The committee set the direction of the network, organise the workshops, evaluate feedback and help connect our members.
Anja Schwenzer
Anja studied Biochemistry in Leipzig (Germany) and completed a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Strasbourg (France). From 2014, Anja worked with Professor Kim Midwood at the Kennedy Institute investigating how posttranslational modifications of proteins drive adaptive and innate immune responses in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. In 2019 Anja started an industry-funded project studying autoimmune responses in cancer long-term survivors and characterising novel targets for immune checkpoint inhibition.
Andrew Foers
Andrew is an Oxford-Janssen fellow based at the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology. He was an undergraduate at the University of Melbourne and then completed a PhD at WEHI, and a subsequent postdoc at University of Cambridge. Applying both wet and dry lab skillsets, Andy's current work is focussed on identifying pathogenic processes in auto-inflammatory uveitis.
Nan Yang
Nan joined Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology (Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology & Musculoskeletal Sciences) in January 2019, investigating Fibrosis and Tissue Regeneration in relation to Dupuytren’s disease. In March 2020, she began an Oxford-BMS Fellowship in the same group, focussing on liver fibrosis. Beyond the lab, Nan is a member of the Public Engagement Committee for the Society for Endocrinology.
Thomas Agbaedeng
Thomas is a Novo Nordisk Research Fellow at the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics. In his position, Thomas is working at the interface of industry (Novo Nordisk company) and academia (Oxford) collaboration to use epigenetic fine mapping to identify new drug targets for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Thomas was formerly a Grant-funded Researcher at The University of Adelaide. Thomas has a keen interest in commercialisation of innovative research and healthcare solutions. He is also very interested in increasing industry engagement and collaboration among early career scientists in academia
Roel De Maeyer
Roel is an early career researcher at NDORMS currently holding an Oxford-BMS fellowship focusing on establishing novel human immune challenge (HIC) models to provide robust and reproducible platforms with which to interrogate early phase experimental medicines. He obtained his PhD in 2018 from University College London, where he worked on acute inflammatory responses in older people.
Ranjeet Mahla
Ranjeet is an Oxford BMS fellow at the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, supervised by Professor Lynn B Dustin. He is exploring autoreactive B cells in Sjogren syndrome (SS). SS is the second most common autoimmune rheumatic disease after rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The SS systemic condition is characterized by infiltration of autoreactive B cells in salivary and lacrimal glands and the presence of antibodies against ubiquitously expressed self-antigens such as TRIM21, TROVE2, La, scl70, and other extractable nuclear antigens. Using the multi-omics approach, Ranjeet is characterizing the heterogenicity and dynamicity of autoreactive B cells in salivary glands and peripheral blood mononuclear cells from healthy controls and Sjogren syndrome patients. His aim is to understate how autoreactive B cells escape the self-tolerance mechanism and identify new therapeutic targets.