Child Health

Dr George Raptis is an Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer and Consultant in Paediatric Allergy, based at the Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow.   George's main interest is to understand further the pathophysiology of gastrointestinal allergy in children.  Better understanding of the microenvironment of the gastrointestinal mucosa and mechanisms of allergy will enable researchers and clinicians to develop means to prevent or induce immunological tolerance.   Additionally, he is striving to develop a model of care for allergic patients that aims to consider each stage of the allergic disease continuum and propose a number of strategies to provide consumer-focussed, best care.   Dr Raptis is committed to contributing to the development of research in this field in order to alleviate the impact of allergies on sufferers.

Dr Konstantinos Gerasimidis is a Senior Lecturer in Clinical Nutrition.  He graduated in Nutrition and Dietetics and completed his postgraduate studies in Clinical Nutrition.  During his doctoral research at the University of Glasgow, he explored the effect of exclusive enteral nutrition on the gut microbiota and nutritional status of children with Crohn's disease.  He holds an honorary contract as Clinical Paediatric Nutrition Scientist with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

The lab work of Professor Simon W Milling focuses on dendritic cells and macrophages in the intestine and on how these cells respond to infectious or inflammatory stimuli, using samples from both mice and humans.  The aim of this work is to understand the roles that these cells play, both in controlling immune responses against pathogens, and in the pathology of inflammatory diseases.  This knowledge is applied to the study of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, including axial spondyloarthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and alopecia areata. The aim is to use this information to find improved ways to manipulate the immune system, to safely control inflammatory pathology, or to activate protective responses.

Updated 15/8/23

Caroline Kerbiriou graduated in Cell Biology and Animal Physiology from Paul Sabatier University, Toulouse, France in 2015, before completing an MSc in Digestive Health and Nutrition in 2017.   During the MSc, she studied the gut microbiome and immune system in intestinal and metabolic diseases including Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) and Diabetes.   In 2017, she started her PhD aiming to investigate the gut microbiome and immune profile in infants with non-IgE-mediated Cow's Milk Protein Allergy.

Dr Evi Germeni is a Lecturer in Qualitative Methods for Health Research and also leads the Incorporating Perspectives and Experiences (IPE) research programme within the Health Economics and Health Technlology Assessment (HEHTA) group.  Her work broadly focuses on employing qualitative approaches to understand experiences of health and illness and to provide a patient-centred assessment of complex health technologies by investigating, for example, whether a technology that has shown to be effective and cost-effective, is also acceptable to its target audience.   Before coming to Glasgow, she held postdoctoral research fellowships at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences of the University of Oxford, the Institute of Health Research of the University of Exeter, and the Institute of Communication and Health of the University of Lugano in Switzerland.

Rebecca Totterdell completed her undergraduate degree in Physiology at the University of Aberdeen in 2007.   She went onto study for a MSc in Human Nutrition at the University of Glasgow, specialising in Public Health Nutrition.  During this time she studied the design, implementation and evaluation of health improvement programs.  In 2018 she began her PhD, aiming to improve school preparedness in the management of pupils with allergic disease.   Rebecca is also a registered associate nutritionist with the Association for Nutrition.