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The University of Southampton
Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute

Prize awarded to SMMI member researching air quality

Published: 24 April 2019
Dr Matt Loxham
Dr Matt Loxham

Dr Matt Loxham, member of SMMI and Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Medicine, has won the prize for best oral presentation at the European Respiratory Society Lung Science Conference in Estoril, Portugal, 7-10 March 2019. Matt’s talk, “Novel cellular effects of ultrafine particulate matter from an underground railway station uncovered through RNAseq”, focused on work aiming to discover new pathways and effects on the airways of airborne dust in underground railway systems, using state-of-the-art RNA sequencing technology in combination with advanced cell culture techniques pioneered in the Brooke Lab, Faculty of Medicine, by Prof Donna Davies. In addition to Prof Davies, this work was in collaboration with Profs Damon Teagle and Martin Palmer (OES). Matt will also be presenting this data at the European Respiratory Society International Congress in Madrid in September 2019.

Although Matt still retains a strong interest in air quality in underground railways, the principal focus of his current research is the cellular and molecular response to metals in inhaled particulate matter, and the chemistry and toxicology of particulate matter from ships and ports. Matt works in collaboration with several other SMMI members including Prof Damon Teagle, Dr Steven Johnston, Prof Gavin Foster, and Prof Simon Cox, along with two SMMI PhD scholars, Natasha Easton and Florentin Bulot.  Matt is supported by a Future Leader Fellowship from the BBSRC, and a Senior Research Fellowship from the NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre, with whom he is currently working to develop the ability to study responses to pollution through analysis of blood and urine samples.

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