Prof. Nicola Jane Stonehouse is a professor of molecular virology at the University of Leeds. Prof. Stonehouse studied biological sciences at the University of East Anglia and moved to the University of Leeds for graduate studies in the Faculty of Medicine, which she completed in 1992. After her PhD and post-doctoral work in the UK and Sweden, Stonehouse was awarded a Medical Research Council (MRC) fellowship, where she was the first to describe the crystal structure of an RNA aptamer–protein complex. Her research investigates many aspects of the viral lifecycle, focusing on picornaviruses. Recently, she has worked on the development of a novel virus-like particle poliovirus vaccine and the replication of the foot-and-mouth disease virus.
Prof. Mark Harris graduated from Plymouth Polytechnic in 1983 with a degree in biological sciences before beginning his PhD studies with Ron Hay at the Institute of Virology in Glasgow, focusing on adenovirus DNA replication. After a post-doctoral position studying baculoviruses with Robert Possee at the NERC Institute of Virology in Oxford, he moved back to Glasgow to the Department of Veterinary Pathology to study the HIV-1 Nef protein with Jim Neil. He was subsequently awarded an MRC AIDS Directed Programme Senior Fellowship in 1994 at the University of Glasgow and subsequently took up a Lectureship at the University of Leeds (UoL) in 1997, where he started to develop research interests in hepatitis C virus biology, funded by the MRC, BBSRC, and Wellcome Trust. In 2011, he was awarded a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award. He is Deputy Director of the UoL Wellcome Trust 4-year PhD scheme and is the academic lead for the Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund (ISSF). He currently serves on the European Research Council panel LS6 Immunity and Infection evaluation board.
