NIHR Imperial BRC Team

Mark Thursz is professor of hepatology in the Division of Digestive Diseases and Thursz is a clinical hepatologist at St Mary’s Hospital. In addition to his leadership role as the Director of the NIHR Imperial BRC, he is also the R&D Director for ICHT and Head of the Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction at Imperial College London.

Prof Thursz was educated at King’s College London and trained in Gastroenterology and Hepatology at St Mary’s being appointed as senior Lecturer and honorary consultant in 1997. His early research work with Howard Thomas and Adrian Hill focussed on genetic susceptibility in viral hepatitis, which expanded to encompass the natural history of viral hepatitis and factors which determine disease progression. In 2011, Prof Thursz launched the Prevention of Liver Fibrosis and Cancer in Africa (PROLIFCA) programme to address barriers to control and elimination of viral hepatitis in resource limited countries. In addition to viral hepatitis, he runs a translational research programme in alcohol-related liver disease (including STOPAH trial), and was recently granted an MRC Stratified Medicine award exploring novel biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis and risk of infection in this condition.

Paul joined Imperial College London in April 2012 as Clinical Research Operations Manager in the Faculty of Medicine. Prior to this appointment he worked as Head of the Joint Research Office at St George’s, University of London, and as Deputy Scientific Secretary at the Institute of Cancer Research in South Kensington. Paul read Physics at the University of Leeds, and completed his PhD in Aerospace Science in 1995 at Cranfield University.

As the NIHR Imperial BRC Manager, Paul coordinates all research and financial management and reporting activities for the BRC Themes, and also for funding received via the London (North West) Comprehensive Local Research Network (CLRN). In 2017, Paul was appointed as the Head of Research Operations at Imperial College London and the Imperial Healthcare NHS Trust.

Antonia joined Imperial College London in 2017 as a Grants Coordinator in LMS before moving in 2018 to be the Section Manager for Neuroscience in the Department of Brain Sciences. Prior to joining the College finance administration Antonia completed a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology in the NHLI at Imperial in 2012 followed by a Post-doctoral position in Cellular Biophysics at The Randall Centre, King’s College London.

As Head of Operations, Antonia provides operational management of all NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) activities – including research, financial, contractual and reporting – to ensure the BRC delivers its stated objectives on time and within budget. In addition she specifically supports the activities for the following Themes:

• Digital Health
• Molecular Phenomics

Mekala joined Imperial College London in December 2021. She has a strong academic research background in cancer drug development, holding a PhD in Toxicology, MSc in Bioengineering, and a BSc (Hons) in Medical Biotechnology. Prior to joining Imperial, Mekala worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Anti-Cancer Drug Development at the Cancer Research UK Biomolecular Structure Group, UCL School of Pharmacy, developing next-generation, telomere-targeting anti-cancer agents, which is currently in Phase 1 clinical trials. She has authored 47 peer-reviewed publications with over 2,600 citation. She subsequently held roles as Research Manager at UCL Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre and Cancer Trials Coordinator at UCLH NIHR Clinical Research Facility, gaining extensive expertise in clinical trials operations, financial management, PPIE leadership, and stakeholder engagement across NHS, academia, and industry.

As Senior Research Programmes Manager, Mekala oversees the delivery of the key BRC strategies (EDI, PPIE and Academic Career Development), as well as supporting the financial management and reporting activities for the following Themes:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Brain Sciences
• Infection & AMR
• Respiratory
• Cardiovascular

Ana joined Imperial College London in June 2026. Prior to this she was science manager at the UK Dementia Research Institute, where she led on strategic activities, national and international partnerships, and institute-wide reporting. Ana also held positions at University College London and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where she facilitated research collaborations, communities of practice and coordinated substantive interdisciplinary biomedical research programmes, and the MRC, where she managed the population health research portfolio.

Ana holds a PhD in Neuroscience (UCL) and conducted two post-docs at UCL and King’s college London.

As one of the NIHR Imperial BRC Research Programme Managers, Ana supports the financial management and reporting activities for the following Themes:

• Digestive Diseases
• Metabolic and Endocrine
• Multiple Long-term Conditions
• Pregnancy and Prematurity
• Surgery and Cancer

Anastasiya joined the NIHR Imperial BRC team in April 2026. Prior to this, she held a Postdoctoral Research Associate position at Imperial College London (2021–2026), where she contributed to research in Synthetic Biology and Biomanufacturing and represented postdocs at different levels of college organisation. Before that, she was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Oxford. Anastasiya completed her PhD in Molecular Biology at University College London.

As Research Programmes Officer, Anastasiya contributes to the BRC’s digital presence, oversees projects reporting, plays an active role in delivering the BRC’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion strategy and works closely with BRC leadership to facilitate effective collaboration and communication across the centre’s research programmes.

Anastasiya also supports activities of two BRC Themes:

• Immunology
• Social, Genetic & Environmental Determinants of Health