Our Team

Chloe has been a Consultant Physician at Barts Health NHS Trust since 2003 and was appointed by Queen Mary University in 2019. She leads an internationally renowned therapeutic trials unit that has made major contributions to the development and licensing of around 20 novel therapies. She specialises in long-acting therapeutics and is global lead author for the FLAIR study which evaluated the first-ever long-acting injectable HIV therapy and was published in the NEJM. Chloe led the practice-changing blood-borne virus testing campaign (Going Viral ) based in emergency departments across the UK.

Her research focuses on inclusive study design and the ways of including and engaging women, pregnant women, racially minoritised people and older adults in clinical trials.

During mpox she established an international research collaboration (SHARE-net) that delivered four impactful clinical manuscripts which have changed international guidelines. She was an advisor to WHO Europe on mpox.

As past Chair of the British HIV Association (2016-19) she challenged discriminatory legislature and is considered a global medical leader for the U=U campaign.

Chloe has led both nationally and locally within the field of Equity Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). She was past President of the Medical Women’s Federation and the former Academic EDI lead for the Faculty of Medicine and Athena Swan Chair. She has been named in the top 100 LGBTQ+ influencers (2020; Diva magazine) and in the Disability Power Influencer Top 100 (2023; Shaw Trust). She speaks and is interviewed regularly on podcasts on leadership, sexism, homophobia and ableism. She has published on inequities in research and in the workforce.

Jane is a Consultant Physician and researcher in HIV Medicine at Homerton Healthcare NHS  Foundation Trust and at Barts Health, with honorary academic appointments at the Wolfson Institute of Population Health, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry QMUL and in Global Health at University College London. Working across disciplinary and organisational boundaries since the early 1980s,  Jane has responded to the emergence and evolution of the HIV epidemic as a clinician, researcher, advocate, and teacher.  Her work focuses on the impact of HIV amongst underserved and underrepresented communities, with an emphasis on women, families, and migrant communities.   Jane co-chairs London’s HIV Fast Track Cities Leadership Group which brings people, ideas, and organisations together around a common purpose. She works extensively with community organisations and is Chair of the National AIDS Trust

A founder member of the SHARE collaborative in 2020, Jane served as Deputy Director until 2023 and is co-chair of the SHARE Community Advisory Board.

Dr Vanessa Apea is a consultant physician in Genito-urinary and HIV medicine and research lead in Sexual Health at Barts Health NHS Trust. She is also an honorary senior lecturer at Queen Mary University of London. Vanessa is a former Fulbright scholar and has a Masters in Public Health from Harvard University.

She has an established track record of exploring and promoting health equity in marginalised populations with a particular research interest in participatory approaches; receiving an NHS 70 Windrush Award for her contribution to improving health equity. In addition, she has 15 years’ experience of successful collaborative working with community stakeholders, third sector agencies, health economists, sociologists, health psychologists and commissioners to advocate for racially minoritised communities in the UK, Canada and Ghana. Dr Apea is a member of the NIHR CRN Advisory Group for Research Inclusivity and Participation at Study Sites and the clinical representative on London’s Fast Track Cities Initiative Stigma Subgroup.

Vanessa is a national champion for health literacy among black communities and Black women’s health and has spoken on a number of platforms including BBC Morning Live, PBS, CAHN Health Hour, ITV News, Sky news, The Voice and Evening Standard. She is also the co-host of Health and Power, a monthly broadcast for people of colour focusing on health inequalities. Vanessa is co-leading the UK’s first Black Women’s Health Manifesto and is currently a HARP PhD Fellow exploring the interactions between healthcare professionals and Black women.

Professor Griffiths is a Professor of Primary Care at Barts Health NHS Trust and Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry at Queen Mary University of London, Acting Director of the Institute of Population Health Sciences, Centre Lead for the Centre for Primary Care and Public Health, Co-Director of the Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research, Visiting Professor at the University of Edinburgh, Principal Investigator at the MRC-Asthma UK Centre for Allergic Mechanisms in Asthma, Theme co-Lead for the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration North Thames, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners.

He read Physiological Sciences at Keble College, Oxford, before completing a D.Phil addressing the endocrine control of gut function. His clinical training was at King’s College London. His research addresses tuberculosis, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes, and ethnicity. He is a member of the development groups for NICE guidelines for tuberculosis and for the British asthma guidelines. He is an editorial board member of the journals Thorax and the Primary Care Respiratory Journal.

Dr Dhairyawan has worked in sexual health and HIV in East London since 2008 and is a Consultant in Sexual Health and HIV Medicine at Barts Health NHS Trust and an Honorary Senior Lecturer at QMUL. She has a track record of effective multidisciplinary and multiagency research collaborations within NHS clinical settings, including with colleagues from the social sciences, voluntary sector and patient communities. She led on the first UK study exploring the links between intimate partner violence and HIV.

The recipient of grants from BHIVA, Public Health England and Fast Track Cities, she is nationally recognised for her expertise on health inequalities and in championing the needs of racially minoritised women in sexual health/HIV, through her work with NAZ, BHIVA, AIDSMAP, Positively UK, 4M Mentor Mothers, SWIFT, and BASHH. In addition to her academic publications, she has been written and spoken on health equity for several media platforms including BBC Sounds, BBC Asian Network the Lancet, Race and Health, BMJ Leader, Discover Society, Cost of Living and Media Diversified. She was an inaugural Wellcome Collection x Spread the Word awardee where she was supported to write Unheard: The Medical Practice of Silencing which is to be published by Trapeze in July 2024. She was named by iNews as a ‘Woman Changing the World’ on International Woman’s Day in 2019.

Sara is an anthropologist working at the intersection of public health, anti-racist and participatory health research to achieve health equity.  Her interests span intersectional health inequalities (particularly in sexual health, HIV and other infectious diseases), critical implementation science, anti-racist health research, community-led research, and the social aspects of chronic illness. She uses qualitative methodology, and especially longitudinal, ethnographic and case study methodologies.

Sara is Senior Lecturer in Public Health and Equity at Wolfson Institute of Population health and the social science lead for the SHARE collaborative. Prior to joining QMUL, Sara worked as a social scientist at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford, at the Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, and at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She has also worked in the NHS carrying out social research on HIV in East London hospitals and in the HIV voluntary sector. Sara has lived in East London for 25 years.

Originally from Kenya, Angelina has over 25 years of experience working in the HIV sector on different initiatives ranging from providing one-to-one support to people living with HIV, treatment advocacy, and managing service delivery to facilitating, promoting and advocating for the involvement of women living with HIV in forming and informing local and national strategy and policy.

Living with HIV for more than 25 years, she is a founder member of the 4M Network of Mentor Mothers living with HIV

A programme that works with Mentor Mothers living with HIV to train them to support their peers in their pregnancy journey and for their professional development.

Angelina also sits on various national and international advisory boards. These include as a patron of the National HIV Nurses Association , a lay member of the Women’s Network of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, a member of the Organizing Committee of the annual International Women and HIV Workshop, has been a Community representative for BHIVA, and is a Trustee of the National AIDS Trust, Salamander Trust and SAFE Kenya . She has co-authored various articles in peer-review journals, and UNAIDS reports.

Sadna has worked with Barts Health HIV services since 2014 supporting Professor Orkin. She continued to work with the HIV research team from 2016. She has been the project manager for blood bourne virus testing in emergency departments at Barts Health NHS Trust. 

Sadna formally joined the SHARE team from May 2021 and was one of the core members to help develop SHARE from its inception. She is responsible for overall management of SHARE and each research theme. 

Mr Hand originally trained as an enrolled nurse at Grantham and Kesteven Hospital in Lincolnshire, originally qualifying in 1989 and then converted to a Registered General Nurse in 1999 at Thames Valley University. James worked in the London Lighthouse in 1995 and then moved to the Kobler Clinic at Chelsea and Westminster NHS Trust working within the HIV outpatients unit and then HIV research (St Stephen’s AIDs Trust).

In 2005, James moved to Barts and the London NHS Trust and worked alongside Prof Orkin in developing the already established small HIV Research Unit. Over the years, this unit has successfully expanded to include Sexual Health and Hepatology Research. This unit is now a national and internationally recognised research unit for commercial and non-commercial studies, with more recently leading the now Barts Health NHS Trust response to COVID-19. James is responsible for the overall management and leadership of this unit and the team within.

James is a Trustee at Brighter Future International Trust which works with poor and vulnerable people to tackle the causes and consequences of extreme poverty. BFIT is committed to the relief of distress caused by the diseases of leprosy, HIV/AIDS, TB, disability and malnutrition. The charity works with a dedicated partner in Andhra Pradesh in southern India and James visits regularly with his fellow Trustees.

In his leisure time, James enjoys travelling and attending the gym. He also enjoys time spent with his family and friends alike.

Helena graduated from City University London in 2002 with a BA in Nursing. Helena has worked in different specialties including Urology and Tropical diseases, but her real passion has always been Sexual Health. She joined the sexual health service at The Royal London Hospital in 2009 and has worked with the research team from 2016. Helena’s current role is a Senior Research Nurse for Sexual health and HIV studies at Grahame Hayton Unit at The Royal London Hospital.

She believes that patient care should be every health care worker first priority.

Hafiza graduated in 2018 with a BSc Honours in Nursing and has since expanded her skills working across different specialities including General surgery and Critical care. She joined the research team in early 2022 and her current role is as a Research Nurse for Sexual health and HIV at The Royal London Hospital assisting with commercial and non-commercial studies.

She is passionate in delivering individualised patient care and emulating the quality of care through promotion of health equity whilst on the quest of advancing her expertise within research.

Maryam is an academic scientist with a keen interest in immunology of HIV cure related research. Prior to joining SHARE, she worked on several high-profile HIV cure-centred clinical trials, including RIVER, RIO and e-CLEAR, whilst simultaneously managing her own research on HIV elite control, SARS-CoV-2 serology, and use of CAR-iNKT cells as an immunotherapeutic cure for HIV. Much of this work has been published, including  the development of a dried blood spot assay to facilitate seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 and a diagnostic algorithm to facilitate diagnosis amongst HIV elite controllers.

She is technically skilled in multiple areas of laboratory-based research including molecular virology, flow cytometry, immunoassays including ELISA, DABA & ELISpot, cytokine profiling and cell expansion and viral culturing.

Her PhD, supervised by Dr John Thornhill & Professor Patrick Kennedy, is focused on identifying the drivers of viral persistence in chronic HIV/HBV co-infection in an effort to identify potential immunotherapeutic targets.

Maryam is a passionate advocate of patient engagement in academic research and takes pride in being a laboratory-based scientist who is educated on healthy inequality and always strives to centre her research around patient needs.

Nishat Halim is the research trial manager for the ILANA study, based within the SHARE team. She has worked in clinical research for five years. She completed her undergraduate degree in Biomedical Sciences and then went onto complete a masters in clinical trials whilst working within the NIHR Clinical Research Network.

Nishat has worked across a variety of specialties, including cancer, IBD, allergy and paediatrics. She has a particular interest in global health, immunology and infectious diseases.

Rebecca has been engaged with the HIV sector for over 20 years in her personal capacity as a woman living with HIV as well as professionally working with various organisations.  Rebecca holds a BSc Psychology and an MBA Healthcare and is especially interested in the sexual health and wellbeing of minoritized women. Rebecca is a mentor, speaker and trainer currently co-leading on the Growing Older, Wiser, Stronger (GROWS) Project for women over 40 ageing with HIV.

Rebecca is currently an active member of the UK Community Advisory Board (UKCAB) and sits on the British HIV Association (BHIVA) Audit and Standards sub-committee group as a representative. Rebecca is one of 3 directors for 4M Mentor Mothers Network CIC (4mmm.org), an organisation offering mentoring, support and training for women living with HIV going through the perinatal journey.

Rebecca has recently joined the SHARE collaborative where she hopes to use her knowledge and skills of community engagement.

Rosalie conducts qualitative research as part of the SHARE team, in particular within the ILANA trial, and No-Lana and MPOX studies.

Rosalie previously worked as a Research Assistant at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), where she supported the design of monitoring and evaluation frameworks for complex public health interventions for communities located near mining operations in Zimbabwe, Brazil and South Africa, which included a substantial focus on HIV prevention, testing and treatment.

In 2021 Rosalie completed her MSc in Public Health at LSHTM, where her dissertation explored the psychosocial impact of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis on gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men using qualitative data from the PROUD trial. She also holds a BA in Development Studies and Economics from SOAS, University of London.

Prior to her masters, Rosalie worked for four years in policy and campaigns at the National AIDS Trust (NAT), where she undertook advocacy and research promoting the rights of people living with HIV in the UK. She also led NAT’s work with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control monitoring the HIV and Hepatitis response across Europe and Central Asia.

Since 2020, she has written regularly for NAM – a charity focused on sharing accessible, accurate, and reliable information to support the fight against HIV and AIDS.

Alexa’s research in SHARE focuses on highlighting current gaps in practices of equity, diversity, and inclusion in studies evaluating novel therapies for HIV and also within academic and healthcare contexts.

Prior to joining the SHARE team, Alexa worked as a Research Assistant at King’s College Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, where she supported the development of scalable psychological therapies for pregnant women with depression and HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2022, Alexa completed her MSc in Global Mental Health at King’s College London and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where her dissertation explored mediators, moderators, and predictors of psychological therapies for perinatal depression in low- and middle-income countries. She also received a BA in Psychology and French from Vassar College in New York.

Her passion for reducing health inequities began in 2019 when she joined the Consortium on Forced Migration, Displacement and Education as a Research Fellow to examine mental health issues amongst forced migrants in Switzerland. She then collaborated with researchers from the Trauma & Global Mental Health Lab at the New School in New York to examine the role of intergenerational story telling on psychological wellbeing. She was a Refugee Resettlement Intern for the International Rescue Committee in New York from 2020-2021.

Habiba is a Research Assistant in Applied Health Research contributing to public engagement and communication of research within the SHARE Collaborative.

She previously worked as a Research Officer at the Institute of Public Health and Wellbeing, University of Essex. In this role, Habiba actively contributed to the development of evaluation tools for interventions aimed at reducing health inequalities across Essex.

In 2022, Habiba completed a Master’s degree in Global Public Health from the University of Essex where her dissertation focused on understanding the socio-cultural and political factors that impact the accessibility of maternal healthcare for women of marginalized groups in the UK. She also holds a BSc in Microbiology from Al-hikmah University, Nigeria.

Habiba’s unwavering commitment and passion for taking part in research that aims to improve the health and wellbeing of women in the UK and globally, drives her to be an advocate for equitable and accessible healthcare, and she is determined to make a meaningful impact in this area.

Dr Melanie Smuk (Mel/She/Her), Senior Lecturer in Statistics and Epidemiology, is a distinguished member of the SHARE Collaborative and the Centre for Genomics and Child Health. Armed with a BSc in Mathematics, an MSc in Statistics, and a PhD in Statistical Methodology, Mel boasts a rich academic background. Prior to her current roles, she contributed significantly within a pragmatic clinical trials unit and served as a program director spearheading an MSc in Health Data Science.

Her professional journey has been marked by extensive involvement as a statistical lead in large international clinical drug trials employing adaptive designs, alongside substantial contributions to major observational studies. Proficient in both Frequentist and Bayesian methodologies, Mel adeptly navigates diverse medical datasets. Her expertise spans across a wide spectrum of medical domains, making her a versatile asset in the field.

Dr Kyle Ring is a Consultant Physician in HIV and Sexual Health at Barts Health NHS Trust and an Honorary Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London. Kyle has a background in gender studies and queer theory as part of their Masters in Postcolonial Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies. Their research interests include intersectional health inequalities particularly in relation to gender, sexuality and race.

Kyle was a former Trustee for the LGBTQ+ human rights charity Stonewall and member of the Decolonising Contraception collective. They are currently on the steering committee for the Racially Minoritised Communities Specialist Interest Group for the British Association of Sexual Health & HIV (BASHH).

Kyle has an interest in long-acting HIV therapy and established SHARE LAI-net, the largest cohort of people on injectable HIV therapy in the UK. Kyle is co-investigator on a number of therapeutic HIV drug trials ongoing at Barts Health NHS Trust and priniciple investigator of the Self-TI study, exploring self-testing for human papilloma virus (HPV) in transmasculine and transfeminine people.

Kyle’s passion for diversity and representation extends beyond the workplace and led to their creation of the global platform @in.hair.itance (Twitter & TikTok handle) aimed at celebrating hair history and diversity for people of colour.

Shiraaz joined the SHARE Collaborative as a Research Assistant in Applied Health Research in February 2024. Prior to this, he worked as a Community Researcher working on The SHIELD Study. He has also worked as a Research Assistant in HIV at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex – he conducted qualitative research on two clinical studies. An additional research project he worked on was the INTUIT Research Project. He is also a Trustee for a national HIV charitable organisation and belongs to two Steering Groups for another HIV charitable organisation.

Prior to pursuing a career in research, he worked in the HIV/Sexual Health charitable sector. His roles included sexual health promotion as well as providing one-to one support to service users, reflecting person-centred values and a holistic approach to the development of health and care plans with the overall aim supporting others to improve their sexual health, relationships, and emotional wellbeing.

In 2021, he completed an MSc Health Psychology at University College London. Over the duration of the course, he was encouraged to select a specialist area and he opted for HIV because of his work in the HIV/Sexual Health sector. He conducted a qualitative study exploring the lived experience of HIV from the perspective of Black African Women in the UK. Findings from this study not only highlighted support needs but also made recommendations for support services.