Dr Adnan H Khan BSc, MB BS, PhD, FRCOphth

NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Ophthalmology

Dr Adnan Khan is the NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Ophthalmology at the University of Southampton. He is undertaking ‘bench-to-bedside’ research into the immunological basis of sight-threatening eye diseases, including Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD). He is a clinician-scientist in training, combining research with higher specialty training in ophthalmology.

Adnan joined the University of Southampton in 2019. His passion for medical research developed early at University College London (UCL) Medical School, where he interrupted his medical studies to undertake an intercalated PhD in transplantation immunology with Professors Andrew George MBE and Giovanna Lombardi at Imperial College London. He investigated the use of dendritic cell immunotherapy to induce donor-specific transplantation tolerance. Adnan demonstrated that dendritic cells (the body’s ‘professional’ antigen-presenting cells), when modified using lentiviral vectors to inhibit co-stimulation, or ‘signal 2’ to alloreactive T cells, can prevent corneal graft rejection. This was mediated by the generation of antigen-specific regulatory T cells (Tregs). The research was funded by the Roche Organ Transplantation Research Foundation (ROTRF), a registered medical research charity based in Switzerland. Adnan was awarded The Transplantation Society (TTS) International Young Investigator Award in 2008 for this work.

Adnan undertook further research in transplantation immunology as an Academic Foundation Doctor in Professor Kathryn Wood’s Transplantation Research Immunology Group (TRIG) before entering Ophthalmology training in Scotland. In Aberdeen, he became a co-investigator of an ophthalmology clinical trial, working together with a team of clinician-scientists.

He is currently working with Professor Andrew Lotery at the University of Southampton to elucidate the inflammatory mechanisms underlying the development of Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD). AMD is predicted to affect 288 million people worldwide by 2040, with no curative treatments currently available for this progressive disease that results in loss of central vision.

Qualifications

• FRCOphth, Ophthalmology, Royal College of Ophthalmologists, London, 2019
• PhD, Transplantation Immunology, Imperial College London, 2009
• MB BS, Medicine, University College London (UCL) Medical School, 2012
• BSc (Hons)- Intercalated, Immunology and Cell Pathology, University College London (UCL), 2004

Appointments held

• 2019 – Present, NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Ophthalmology, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
• 2014 – 2019, Specialty Registrar in Ophthalmology, NHS Education for Scotland: North of Scotland Deanery at Aberdeen and Inverness, Scotland, UK
• 2014 – 2016, Honorary Clinical Research Fellow, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
• 2012 – 2014, Academic Foundation Doctor, Oxford University Clinical Academic Graduate School (OUCAGS), University of Oxford and Oxford University Hospitals