51cg

Luke Farrow

Centre Deputy Director

SCREDS Clinical Lecturer, 51cg
Speciality Trainee in Trauma and Orthopaedics, NHS Grampian

Luke is a Scottish Research Excellence Development Scheme (SCREDS) Clinical Lecturer and Orthopaedic trainee based in Aberdeen. As well as Deputy Director of ABC-MSK, he is also lead for the new Trauma & Orthopaedics Clinical Research Group. He also leads the Aberdeen AI Healthcare Collaborative (AAHC) and is the current BOA Associate Sub-Speciality Lead for elective orthopaedics. He has clinical interests in lower limb arthroplasty and trauma, as well as research interests around data, AI and digital innovation in Trauma and Orthopaedics.

The work of ABC-MSK is supported by collaborators from a number of disciplines across the 51cg and NHS Grampian.

Dr Santosh Baliga

Consultant in Trauma and Orthopaedics, NHS Grampian

Santosh was appointed as a Consultant in Trauma and Orthopaedics at NHS Grampian in January 2017. His specialist interests are spinal surgery and adult trauma and he directs his elective practice in managing adult cervical and lumbar degenerative conditions. Having graduated from the 51cg Medical School, he has completed Basic and Higher Surgical training in the North of Scotland. He has undertaken fellowship training in Major Trauma and Spine Surgery at University Hospital of North Midlands (UHNM), Stoke-on-Trent. After this he worked at the world renowned Centre for Spinal Studies and Surgery, QMC Nottingham, firstly as senior National Spine Fellow then as an Associate Consultant.

Santosh’s research interests are in degenerative lumbar convictions and adult trauma.  He is heavily involved in undergraduate training in his post as an Honorary Lecturer at the 51cg.

Dr Guy Bewick

Senior Lecturer in Neuroscience, 51cg

Guy is a neuroscientist seeking to understand control mechanisms that adapt nerve terminal function to varying patterns of use, then exploiting these mechanisms as therapeutic targets. His model is the neuromuscular system, both motor and sensory. In motor terminals, he discovered how the two different types physiologically adapt to distinct activity patterns, which has suggested targets to treat ALS. Guy and his team are now making exciting discoveries in sensory terminals, including their involvement in priming chronic muscular pain. This same class of sensory nerve endings control our blood pressure, so the team are now seeking to exploit targets uncovered to develop new hypertension treatments, through their spin-out company .

Professor Patrice Forget

Clinical Chair in Anaesthesia, 51cg
Honorary Consultant, NHS Grampian

Patrice previously worked as Clinical Professor in Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine in Belgium, and as President of the Belgian Pain Society. In 2019, he has was appointed as Clinical Chair in Anaesthesia at the 51cg (UK), and Honorary Consultant at the NHS Grampian. He is currently involved in clinical research, focused mainly on perioperative epidemiology, pain, and clinical pharmacology, specifically aiming at improving quality and safety of pain management. 

Patrice is currently founder and the chair of the PANDOS (Pain AND Opioids after Surgery) ESAIC Research Group (European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care).

Brendan Gabriel

Advanced Research Fellow, 51cg

Brendan Gabriel is an Advanced Research Fellow focusing primarily on the role of skeletal muscle during health and disease (obesity, ageing, and diabetes), with a particular interest in chronobiology.

Brendan is also currently investigating the potential of physical activity as a treatment or preventative intervention in metabolic disease, considering the influence of circadian rhythms (e.g. shift work) on skeletal muscle metabolism.

Tim Gardner

Specialty Registrar (ST6) in Trauma and Orthopaedics, NHS Grampian

Tim is a Specialty Registrar in Trauma and Orthopaedics, with interests in paediatric orthopaedics, medical education, high-fidelity simulation and educational media content production. He is currently British Orthopaedic Association Associate Surgical Specialty Lead for Paediatric Orthopaedics, and was a 51cg Clinical Lecturer (Scholarship) in Medical Education from 2022-2023 (OOPE).

Tim's aspirations are to be a Clinical Academic Consultant. He is keen to ensure that healthcare students are appropriately exposed to MSK learning, given nearly a fifth of the population have an MSK condition - optimising both in-person and online methods. In terms of research, he is passionate about involvement in large-scale, well-run, well-financed clinical trials from an undergraduate stage.

Dr Jenny Gregory

Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Science, 51cg

Jenny is a Senior Lecturer, teaching across undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and leads the Sports & Exercise BSc Programmes and coordinates summer research placements at 51cg. Her research focuses on how bone shape and structure change with exercise, disease, and disuse, utilizing medical image analysis and data analytics. The disorders she mainly focuses on are osteoarthritis and osteoporosis, and how bone shape can act as a biomarker for risk and progression. She has also looked at life-course and longitudinal changes in healthy populations.

Professor Gareth Jones

Professor in Epidemiology, 51cg

Gareth is a non-clinical epidemiologist. He trained in epidemiology at the University of Manchester, in the Arthritis Research Campaign Epidemiology Unit. He moved to the 51cg in 2005. He is currently Professor in Epidemiology and deputy head of the 51cg’s Epidemiology Group. He is also currently chair of the School Ethics Review Board, for the School of Medicine, Medical Science and Nutrition.

Maira Karabayas

Speciality Registrar in Rheumatology, NHS Grampian
Research Postgraduate, 51cg

Maira recently completed a CSO Clinical Academic Fellowship undertaking laboratory research in giant cell arteritis (GCA), a debilitating and prevailing form of vasculitis. Employing cutting edge transcriptomic platforms and using in-vitro models, she explored the immune-stomal biology of relapsing GCA and identified putative drug targets specific to the difficult to treat disease state of relapse. She has also led on real-world clinical studies and enjoys multiple international vasculitis collaborations. Clinically, she is the Senior Rheumatology Registrar with the NHS Grampian vasculitis team, leading on the management of GCA.

Maira’s long-term aspiration is to deliver an independent translational research programme combining basic science and disease endotypes to transform the care of people living with GCA.

Professor Gary Macfarlane

Clinical Chair in Epidemiology, 51cg

Gary has held the Chair in Epidemiology (Clinical) at the 51cg since 2005, having previously held the same post at the University of Manchester. He trained in Statistics/Computing Science and then Medicine at the University of Glasgow and undertook his PhD at The University of Bristol. Gary is Honorary Consultant in the Department of Public Health at NHS Grampian, Deputy Clinical Lead for Chronic Pain at NHS Research Scotland and Director of the Versus Arthritis/Medical Research Council Centre for Musculoskeletal Health and Work.

Dr Kathryn Martin

Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology, 51cg

Kathryn is a Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology and Academic Lead for Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement within 51cg's School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition. Her research interests include arthritis, musculoskeletal conditions (including chronic pain), patient and public involvement in research, social determinants of health, the role of physical/social environment on health behaviours and health outcomes, non-pharmacological symptom management (e.g. physical activity, psychological therapies), community engagement, loneliness, and social isolation.

Kathryn is currently Co-Investigator on the Advanced Pain Discovery Platform's consortium (neuropathic pain) and projects (sciatica), Co-Investigator of (using AI to identify chronic pain from routinely collected primary care data), and the Aberdeen Health Determinants Research Collaboration (health inequalities).

Dr Rebecca Parr

Study Coordinator (UK Antimicrobial Registry), 51cg

Rebecca works as Study Coordinator on the UK Antimicrobial Registry, an observational, hospital-based study looking at the effectiveness and safety of drugs used to treat antimicrobial resistance. She has also worked on the FRESKO study where she enjoyed speaking with patients during the post-study interviews. Rebecca continues to work alongside patient partners as a member of the Epidemiology Group Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement team.

Prior to joining the Epidemiology Group, Rebecca worked for over 15 years as a protein engineer, for big pharma and small biotech, on the development of anti-cancer vaccines and antibodies.

Mike Reidy

Paediatric Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, NHS Grampian

Mike is an orthopaedic surgeon based in Aberdeen. He trained at Glasgow University, undertaking higher surgical training in the East of Scotland before completing a fellowship at Alder Hey Children’s hospital. Since August 2019 he has held a consultant post at both the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital and Woodend Hospital. He specialises in paediatric orthopaedics with a focus on childhood hip and neuromuscular conditions. Passionate about education, he teaches at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. He is involved in several national and international research studies, is an peer reviewer for several journals and is an active member of British Society for Children’s Orthopaedic Surgery

In 2023 Mike was awarded both the Scottish and UK Trainer of the Year awards by The Scottish Committee for Orthopaedics and Trauma and the British Orthopaedic Trainees’ Association. Outside of medicine, he is a Trustee for The Archie Foundation, which is a children’s health charity making the difference for local children in Dundee, Aberdeen, Inverness and the surrounding areas.

Anna Riemen

Consultant Surgeon in Trauma and Orthopaedics, NHS Grampian

Anna is a Consultant Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgeon with expertise in hand and wrist surgery, upper limb spasticity, peripheral nerve conditions and paediatric trauma. She completed the prestigious JCST approved TIG fellowship in hand and wrist surgery at Wrightington Hospital, the Merseyside Regional Plastic Surgery Unit and Alder Hey Children’s Hospital with additional sessions in upper limb spasticity surgery at the RJAH in Oswestry. During her fellowship Anna also trained in wrist and base of thumb arthroplasty as well as limb reconstruction using 3D planning and custom 3D printed implants. Anna has also completed a fellowship in paediatric orthopaedics at Alder Hey Children’s hospital with a focus on paediatric trauma and orthopaedic emergencies.

With a background in Biochemistry and a Wellcome Trust-funded PhD in Regenerative Medicine under Professor Cosimo De Bari, Anna’s research spans basic sciences and osteoarthritis to clinical topics such as cold intolerance.

Dr James Ross

Lecturer in Medical Physics, 51cg

James is a lecturer in Medical Physics and a PI in the Medical Imaging Technologies research theme at 51cg. His research interests are focused on the development of novel magnetic resonance imaging techniques. James is involved in several field-cycling imaging (FCI) projects (including applications in brain, MSK and cardiac imaging) which can yield new diagnostic information that is invisible to conventional MRI, and without the need for exogeneous contrast agents.

Dr Ross also has a research interest in MR spectroscopy which reveals information on tissue chemical composition. Working with Dana Dawson, he has two ongoing projects using phosphorus spectroscopy and proton spectroscopy to understand changes in cardiac energy metabolism and fat composition in pathology.

Dr Jennifer Summers

Senior Lecturer in Applied Health Sciences, 51cg

Jennifer is a Senior Lecturer in Applied Health Sciences at the 51cg, and a Chartered Statistician. Her expertise lies in epidemiology, health services research, and statistical analysis, with a strong focus on clinical trials and public health. She is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Otago and an Affiliate of King’s College London. She has contributed extensively to understanding complex health challenges, and her multidisciplinary research aims to inform policy and improve health outcomes by integrating robust statistical methodologies with real-world applications.

Aimee Urquhart

Advanced Practice Physiotherapist in Rheumatology, NHS Grampian

Aimee has worked as a physiotherapist for over 20 years, initially specialising in MSK before moving to Rheumatology 10 years ago. She has been in her current role for over 2 years, and her post includes managing a small team of physiotherapists, leading the NHS Grampian Rheumatology physiotherapy service, and providing education/support to all MSK physiotherapists. Clinically she vets primary care referrals, and runs an injection and ultrasound clinic. Aimee has used a recently developed self management intervention manual to create a programme for patients with inflammatory arthritis, which is being delivered to patients.