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Haematopoietic Remodelling after Major Trauma

Code: BC-DTP_2026_49

Title: Haematopoietic Remodelling after Major Trauma

Primary Supervisor: Paul Vulliamy

Email: p.vulliamy@qmul.ac.uk

Institute: Blizard Institute

Secondary Supervisor: Karim Brohi

Email: k.brohi@qmul.ac.uk

Institute: Blizard Institute

Lay Summary:

Injuries are a leading cause of death and disability in East London and worldwide. Although improvements in trauma care have increased survival over recent years, there are still major gaps in our understanding of how patients recover from injury. One of these gaps is determining how the bone marrow, the organ responsible for producing new blood cells (a process called haematopoiesis), responds after serious injury. This project aims to determine what happens to blood cell production by the bone marrow in the ‘golden hour’ after injury and track the long-term impact of this early response. We think that there may be ‘good’ responses that are associated with better outcomes after injury and ‘bad’ responses that might predispose to complications. In this project we will investigate this using a range of cutting-edge technologies available at Queen Mary University of London, and by harnessing our unique trauma research infrastructure at the Royal London Major Trauma Centre, which serves East London and is one of the world’s leading trauma hospitals. Specifically, we will generate advanced models of the bone marrow and test how these respond to samples taken from injured patients. We will also perform in-depth profiling of the bone marrow and the cells it produces after injury, to determine how trauma can change their function and behaviour. This will allow us to identify the characteristics and drivers of a ‘bad’ response, generating new knowledge that we can use to develop new treatments and further improve outcomes after injury.

Aims and Objectives:

Objective 1: Characterise the hyperacute changes in haematopoiesis that occur after major trauma

Objective 2: Determine the downstream consequences of haematopoietic remodelling in terms of blood cell phenotype and clinical outcome

Objective 3: Identify the critical pathways involved in early haematopoietic remodelling after injury

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