Students and Research Fellows

Robin Curnow, PhD student

Robin’s research focuses on the collection and measurement of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) on breath. VOCs are low molecular weight metabolites that can be found in the gas phase at room temperature. It has been suggested that exhaled VOCs may be useful as biomarkers for almost all respiratory and many non-respiratory diseases, but a lack of standardisation in the way they are collected and analysed has impeded their introduction to clinical use. In his research, Robin aims to inform better sampling and analysis using a mixture of experimental approaches focused on mass spectrometry, and biophysical models of the lungs from which he aims to learn how the compounds behave as they are breathed in and out of the body.

Jan Hansel, Doctoral Fellow

Jan Hansel is an NIHR Doctoral Fellow in Intensive Care Medicine at The University of Manchester and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. His research focuses on precision methods in sepsis antimicrobial therapy.

James Orr, Senior Clinical Research Fellow

James joined C-PACA in November 2024, he is a Senior Clinical Research Fellow at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and a doctoral student at the University of Manchester. He works clinically as a registrar in anaesthetics and intensive care medicine. His research focuses on the human microbiome in health and disease and its relationship with dysregulated inflammation, particularly in asthma.

Richard O’Sullivan, Clinical Research Fellow

Richard is a Clinical Research Fellow supporting the BAC2BAC clinical trial, which investigates novel alveolar imaging technologies for detecting ventilator‑associated pneumonia in intensive care patients. His research and PhD at The University of Manchester focus on the lung alveolar microbiome in the context of respiratory infection. He is a resident doctor in Intensive Care Medicine and Acute Internal Medicine in the North West of England.

Tom Miri, PhD Student

Tom is a PhD student within the Pulse‑CF Research Innovation Hub at The University of Manchester, where his research focuses on cystic fibrosis and pulmonary exacerbations. His work examines the use of breath volatile organic compounds as non‑invasive biomarkers to detect and monitor exacerbations and responses to CFTR (Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator) modulator therapies. Using mass spectrometry and advanced data‑analysis approaches, he investigates metabolic changes in breath, blood, and urine to identify novel biomarkers that could support earlier intervention and more personalised treatment for people living with cystic fibrosis.

Jessica Leeney, Master’s Student

Jessica is a resident doctor and master’s student at The University of Manchester. A graduate of the University of Nottingham, she is interested in anaesthesia and intensive care medicine and aims to dual‑train in these specialties. She completed her foundation training at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust and has research interests in translational and precision medicine for critically unwell and perioperative patients.

Her work includes whole‑blood transcriptomics for sepsis endotyping, virtual‑reality‑based anatomical teaching, and observership‑based medical education. She has also contributed to audits promoting sustainable anaesthetic practice and has held educational roles teaching anatomy and pre‑hospital medicine at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Umang Uniyal, Master’s Student

Umang is a bioinformatics researcher specialising in antimicrobial resistance (AMR), scalable pipeline development, and the integration of AI/ML to enhance clinical diagnostics. He is currently a Master’s student in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology at the University of Manchester.

He developed an end‑to‑end whole‑genome sequencing (WGS) pipeline that transforms raw sequencing data into automated resistance predictions, using multi‑label machine learning models that balance accuracy with interpretability.

His framework enables scalable surveillance workflows and streamlined deployment in clinical or web-based settings. He is now extending this work into clinical metagenomics, focusing on automated and AI‑driven methods to improve diagnostic resolution in respiratory diseases.