Mark has already been supported by the British Association of Dermatologists, the NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) and the Ichthyosis Support Group, and this funding will allow him to pursue a clinical research training fellowship towards a PhD. The research will focus on the ichthyoses (recently renamed epidermal differentiation disorders (EDD)), a group of rare genetic skin disorders that currently have no licensed treatment or cure. Mark will join a cohort of LifeArc funded PhD students tackling rare diseases with the LifeArc Centre for Acceleration of Rare Disease Trials (LifeArc Translational Centres for Rare Disease - LifeArc)Mark’s PhD aims to tackle this challenge by:
Mark says: "I am very grateful to have received funding from LifeArc, which is the final “piece in the puzzle” to allow me to undertake a Clinical Research Training Fellowship focused on improving the lives of patients living with epidermal differentiation disorders. The advice and support received from my supervisors Prof Neil Rajan and Dr Dexter Canoy, and collaborators and mentors Asst. Prof Zoe Venables, Dr Sharmela Darne and Prof Edel O’Toole have been key. Working with Mandy Aldwin, co-founder of the Ichthyosis Support Group has importantly helped shape my research questions. The vision of Prof Reynolds and Prof Haniffa, Co-leads for the Skin, Oral and Immunogenomics theme at the NIHR Newcastle BRC to create an inclusive research environment has been important. I have taken a non-traditional route to my PhD funding, but I feel that having the support of all these funders and institutions is a huge benefit, especially as I think about plans for after my PhD and how we could take findings we learn in the lab forwards to future clinical trials.”
Mark says: "I am very grateful to have received funding from LifeArc, which is the final “piece in the puzzle” to allow me to undertake a Clinical Research Training Fellowship focused on improving the lives of patients living with epidermal differentiation disorders.
The advice and support received from my supervisors Prof Neil Rajan and Dr Dexter Canoy, and collaborators and mentors Asst. Prof Zoe Venables, Dr Sharmela Darne and Prof Edel O’Toole have been key. Working with Mandy Aldwin, co-founder of the Ichthyosis Support Group has importantly helped shape my research questions. The vision of Prof Reynolds and Prof Haniffa, Co-leads for the Skin, Oral and Immunogenomics theme at the NIHR Newcastle BRC to create an inclusive research environment has been important. I have taken a non-traditional route to my PhD funding, but I feel that having the support of all these funders and institutions is a huge benefit, especially as I think about plans for after my PhD and how we could take findings we learn in the lab forwards to future clinical trials.”