“Science doesn’t have borders and our research team brings together diverse skills, expertise and experience from across the globe to address important questions about the metabolic nature of PCOS.”
DAISy-PCOS is national Wellcome Trust funded research project and an associated public engagement programme led by Professor Wiebke Arlt at the University of Birmingham. The research is carried out in collaboration with a number of other research teams up and down the United Kingdom and Ireland. Collectively, our large collaborative team comprises a talented and committed group of clinicians, researchers, healthcare practitioners and engagement professionals with a wide range of skills and experience.
You can find out more about the Birmingham team on this page, as well as explore the site for further information about the DAISy-PCOS research project and our public engagement activities, including how you can get involved if interested.
Professor Wiebke Arlt
DAISy-PCOS Principle Investigator & Honorary Consultant Endocrinologist at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust
Wiebke Arlt is the William Withering Chair of Medicine and Director of the Institute of Metabolism and Systems Research (IMSR) at the University of Birmingham. She leads a large, multi-disciplinary research group, comprising biologists, biochemists, clinician scientists and computational biologists, investigating the regulation and role of steroid metabolism and action in health and disease. She is the lead for the DAISY-PCOS research programme.
As an Honorary Consultant Endocrinologist, she leads specialist services for patients with adrenal and gonadal disorders at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham.
Dr Thais Rocha
DAISy-PCOS Clinical Research Fellow
Thaís is a Consultant Endocrinologist and a clinical research fellow in Professor Arlt’s group, where she leads on the DAISY-PCOS Phenome Study and recruitment. Her work focusses on creating a large cohort of women with PCOS that will undergo detailed clinical, biochemical, and metabolic assessment, to dissect the link between androgen excess and metabolic risk in women with PCOS, and to identify those women at greatest risk of PCOS-associated metabolic disease. This would aid future patient stratification for metabolic monitoring and ultimately aid early detection, prevention, and personalised treatment strategies.
Miss Amarah Anthony
DAISY-PCOS PhD Researcher
Amarah is a PhD student in Professor Arlt’s group where she works on the DAISy-PCOS ex-vivo research projects. Her work focusses on the delineation of androgen metabolism in the liver and the impact of androgens on liver metabolic health. Thereby she aims to identify potential drug targets for the treatment of androgen excess and its adverse metabolic consequences in PCOS.
Dr Punith Kempegowda
DAISy-PCOS Clinical Research Fellow
Punith is a specialist registrar in Endocrinology, Diabetes & General Medicine at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. He is also a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Fellow in the Institute of Metabolism & Systems Research working on the DAISy-PCOS project. His current work focuses on how male hormone activation in adipose tissue impacts on metabolic phenotype in polycystic ovary syndrome, and how modulation of these pathways might inform new treatments for this disorder.
Dr Eka Melson
DAISy-PCOS Clinical Research Fellow
Eka is a recent medical graduate from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He joined the Institute of Metabolism and Systems Research, working with Professor Arlt’s research group as a Clinical Research Fellow on the DAISY-PCOS research study. Eka is responsible for participant recruitment in to the DAISy-PCOS study.
Dr Lina Schiffer
DAISy-PCOS Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Dr Lina Schiffer is a steroid biochemist and postdoctoral research fellow in Prof Arlt’s group leading the ex-vivo research projects of DAISy-PCOS. Her work aims to elucidate, how androgens (‘male’ hormones) are activated in key metabolic tissues, such as adipose and the liver, and how androgens regulate metabolic health. Ultimately, this work aims to identify potential novel targets for the treatment of metabolic complications in PCOS caused by androgens.
Dr Caroline Gillett
DAISY-PCOS Community & Public Engagement Manager
Caroline is the community & public engagement lead for the DAISy-PCOS project, based at the Institute of Metabolism & Systems Research (IMSR) at University of Birmingham. She works closely with the research team, charity partners and women with PCOS to co-develop and deliver our programme of engagement activity. Caroline also manages engagement and involvement activities for the Centre for Systems Modelling & Quantitative Biomedicine (SMQB).
Dr Fozia Shaheen & Dr Angela Taylor
Researchers and Mass Spectrometry Specialists
Fozia and Angela work together in the Steroid Metabolome Analysis Core at the University of Birmingham.
They support Professor Arlt’s lab with the technical preparation, processing and analysis of biological samples (such as urine and blood serum) using state of the art mass spectrometry equipment. This enables specific hormones to be accurately identified and quantified, which is critical to the team’s work.
DAISy-PCOS 