About
Dr Matthew Blunt is a Senior Research Fellow within the Faculty of Medicine and is Assessment Lead for MSc Genomics. He leads a research team focused on natural killer (NK) cells, novel cancer immunotherapies and haematological malignancies.
Examples of published research include:
- KIR2DS2 expression identifies NK cells with enhanced anti-cancer activity (Blunt MD et al, Journal of Immunology, 2022)
- XPO1 inhibition stimulates NK cell activation against lymphoma cells (Fisher JG et al, Frontiers in Oncology, 2021).
- Development of a novel therapeutic to activate NK cells against cancer (Rettman P, Blunt MD et al, Journal for immunotherapy of cancer, 2021).
- Targeting the PI3K/mTOR pathway in CLL (Blunt MD et al, Blood, 2015).
- Identification of IL-4 as a resistance mechanism to idelalisib and ibrutinib (Aguilar-Hernandez M, Blunt MD et al, Blood, 2016 *Co-first author).
- Preclinical evaluation of the dual SYK/JAK inhibitor cerdulatinib alone and in combination with venetoclax (Blunt MD et al, Clinical Cancer Research, 2016).
Research
Research projects
Active projects
Completed projects
Publications
Supervision
Current PhD Students
Teaching
Assessment Lead for MSc Genomics
BIOL3037/BIOL6038 Immunology - Lecturer
Interpretation in Genomic Medicine - Lecturer
BM5 Immunology Year 1 and Year 2 - Tutor
MMedSc - Provides laboratory based projects
Integrated PhD pathway - Provides laboratory based projects
MSc Genomics dissertation - Provides laboratory based projects
Personal Academic Tutor for students on the MSc Genomics programme
Biography
Dr Blunt completed a PhD in immunology and pharmacology at the University of Bath in 2013, funded by the BBSRC and Novartis. He then studied novel treatment strategies for haematological malignancies in the CRUK Centre in Southampton. This work was published in prestigious journals including in Blood and Leukemia and also led to the award of the Catovsky prize (2014) from the UK CLL forum and the John Marsden Prize (2015 and 2016) from the University of Southampton.
He then worked with Professor Salim Khakoo on natural killer cells and the development of novel cancer immunotherapies. In 2018 Dr Blunt received the Postdoctoral Career Track Award from the University of Southampton and in 2019 he was awarded a John Goldman fellowship from Leukaemia UK.
Dr Blunt now leads a team of researchers investigating NK cell activation against cancer.
Prizes
- John Goldman Fellowship (2019)
- Catovsky prize (2014)
- Postdoctoral Career Track Award (2018)
- John Marsden Prize (2015)
- John Marsden Prize (2016)