Post Doctoral Researcher Profiles
Warwick (Rick) Dunn
During studies at school I was always fascinated by solving chemical and biological problems and I discovered that Analytical Chemistry was one appropriate strategy to enable problem solving. I will always remember testing for the unknown components of a colourless solution and after adding an aqueous sulphate solution seeing a distinct blue colour, copper was one of the unknowns. I was awarded a BSc (Hons) degree in Analytical Chemistry and Toxicology at The University of Hull. A PhD followed which was based at BP Chemicals in Hull and focused on the application of mass spectrometry for on-line measurements of chemical process streams. The following eight years were based in industrial and academic research locations around the UK.
In 2003 I moved to UMIST (subsequently The University of Manchester) to begin a post-doctoral position with Professor Douglas Kell, applying metabolomics to solve biological problems, specifically in yeast and humans. Metabolomics is focused on either the targeted, or alternatively the holistic, study of low molecular weight organic or inorganic metabolites in biological systems. I had previously seen presentations from Douglas and Roy Goodacre and believed that Manchester was an outstanding scientific location to perform metabolomics research in a focused but friendly environment. This was specifically true as my research goals focused on mass spectrometry and Manchester has a long history of scientific excellence in this discipline. Mass spectrometry is now a powerful tool applied in studying complete metabolomes. From these beginnings I have come to understand the necessity to study biological systems as a whole, and not just small parts of the system. For this reason I moved to The Manchester Centre for Integrative Systems Biology (MCISB) in the Manchester Interdisciplinary Biocentre (MIB) in 2006 to apply metabolomics in a systems biology environment, focusing on the metabolism of yeast and separately on mammalian health and disease. My time in MCISB and MIB have been invigorating in learning new skills and observing the large advantages of working in large multi-disciplinary research teams to overcome obstacles in biological understanding. These include involvement in the production of a consensus yeast metabolic reconstruction applying a community approach and development of new pathophysiological mechanisms and biomarkers for human diseases. The staff and researchers in MCISB and MIB culture a friendly environment with a wide range of world-class resources available to advance research observations.
The skills I carried with me to Manchester and new skills learnt have provided me with many new tools to apply to solve biological problems. I am specifically interested in applying metabolomics to (a) assist in the construction of quantitative and robust systems biology metabolic models in yeast and humans (b) to identify metabolic biomarkers and understand the complex systems-wide biological processes (pathophysiology) of human diseases including heart, pregnancy-related and kidney diseases along with diabetes and (c) develop new and robust methodologies for metabolite identification which is currently one of the largest problems in mass spectrometry-based metabolomics.
Further information of Rick’s research and The Manchester Centre for Integrative Systems Biology can be found at http://www.mcisb.org/people/dunn/ and http://www.mcisb.org/.