David Dockrell

Biography

I am a clinician scientist. My undergraduate degree was from Trinity College Dublin and I then trained in Dublin before undertaking specialty training in Infectious Diseases at the Mayo Clinic, USA. During this period I developed my interests in macrophage immunology and in the regulation of apoptosis. I joined the University of Sheffield in 1998 and developed my research with a particular focus on how macrophage apoptosis regulates innate immune responses with particular emphasis on pneumococcal infection. In 2005 I received a Wellcome Senior Clinical fellowship. I moved from Sheffield in 2016 to become Professor of infection Medicine at the University of Edinburgh with an interest in HIV medicine and infections in immunocompromised hosts.

Research Interest

My research interests stem from understanding how macrophages contribute to the innate immune response against bacteria and viruses. We have developed a variety of tissue culture models as well as several in vivo models using the pneumococcus as a probe. We have applied these to a variety of other infections including Staphylococcus aureus, Neisseria meningitidis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa as well as HIV-1 and Influenza A virus infection. In particular we are investigating how the host response can utilize induction of apoptosis to enhance microbial killing and regulation of the inflammatory response and how this can be manipulated by specific pathogens. My current work focuses on understanding how microbial killing in organelles such as the phagolysosome sensitizes the macrophage to initiate a programme of apoptosis which involves downregualtion of the anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family member Mcl-1 and ultimately leads to a mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis. We investigate how macrophage phenotype or specific pathogens can alter this host response. I am also interested in how clinical diseases may alter susceptibility by modulating macrophage host responses. As part of the MRC-ABPI COPD consortium we are investigating how COPD modifies macrophage responses to respiratory bacteria. Our group also are examining how HIV-1 modifies macrophage responses to pneumococci in the lung. My work interdigitates closely with that of Professor Moira Whyte (University of Edinburgh), investigation of myeloid cell biology and the regulation of pulmonary inflammation and pulmonary disease with Professor Ian Sabroe (University of Sheffield) and Professor Moira Whyte, and studies on in vivo models of inflammation with Dr Helen Marriott. Our Sheffield proteomic studies are carried out in collaboration with Prof Phillip Wright (Chemical and Process Engineering).