Emeritus ProfessorJeremy Nicholson

Research Interests
Molecular physico-chemical processes in metabolism and medicine
Development of novel spectroscopic and chemometric tools for investigating human disease and toxicological mechanisms
Metabolism-driven top-down systems biology and modelling of complex system failure
Personalised healthcare through metabolic phenotyping and systems medicine
Surgical metabonomics, real-time diagnostics and integrative patient modelling
Membership of societies
Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences
Fellow of the Society of Biology
Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists
Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry
Fellow of the British Toxicological Society
Member of the Imperial College Data Science Institute Research Board
Elected Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians
selected honours and awards etc.
The Royal Society of Chemistry: 21st Silver Medal for Analytical Science (1992)

The Chromatographic Society: Jubilee Silver Medal (1994)

The Royal Society of Chemistry: 21st SAC Gold Medal for Analytical Chemistry (1997)

Pfizer Academic Innovation Award for Chemical and Medicinal Technology (2002)

The Royal Society of Chemistry: Silver Medal for Chemical Biology (2003)

Pfizer Global Chemistry Discipline Prize (2006)

The Royal Society of Chemistry Theophilus Redwood Lecturer (2007)

The Royal Society of Chemistry Interdisciplinary Award (2008)

NIH: Stars in Cancer and Nutrition Distinguished Lecturer (2010)

Semmelweis - Budapest Prize (2010)

Robert Zhong Award in Surgery (Canada) (2013)

Honorary Professor of Systems Biology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University (2005)

Honorary Professor of Analytical Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, China (2005)

Honorary Professor of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China (2005)

Honorary Professor of Medicine, Zhe Jaing University, Hongzhou, China (2006)

Honorary Professor of Systems Biology Shanghai TCM University, China (2006)

Honorary Professor of Biological Spectroscopy, State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Molecular & Atomic Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China (2006)

Honorary Director of the Metabonomics Research Centre, Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, China.(2006)

Honorary Director of Wuhan Magnetic Resonance Research Centre, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, China (elected 2009)

Lifetime Honorary Fellow of the Metabolomics Society (2013)

Lifetime Honorary Member of the US Society of Toxicology (2013)

Robert E Stowell Lectureship, University of California, Davis, USA (2014)

Elected Einstein Professor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (2014)

Warren Lecturer, Vanderbilt University, USA (2015)

Honorary Professor, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (2015)
External Scientific duties
Consulting Editor: Journal of Proteome Research (ACS)

Editorial Board: Molecular Systems Biology

Spin off company
Non-Executive (Founder) Director, Metabometrix UK Ltd.

Host-Gut Microbiota Metabolic Interactions
The gut microbiota co-evolves with its human host from birth or even in-utero. Factors such as the mode of birth, diet and other environmental stimuli influence the developing composition of the microbiome. Interaction between the human host and its’s microbiome is mediated via several axes of communication including the immune system, signalling and direct metabolic cross-talk that physiologically connect the gut with the brain, muscle and liver. A deeper understanding of these axes provides a new framework for developing novel therapeutic targets and optimising personalised interventions.
The missing link between stunted growth and diet
Kwashiorkor is a severe form of malnutrition commonly encountered in developing countries. Much effort has been placed on trying to find appropriate and low resource nutritional protocols for overcoming malnutrition. Gnotobiotic mice implanted with the faeces of Malawian infant twins discordant for kwashiorkor showed differences in growth in these animals with mice implanted with faeces from the healthy twin gaining more weight. These mice also demonstrated perturbations in amino acid, carbohydrate and TCA metabolism, which were apparent when the mice were placed on a traditional Malawian diet, but largely resolved when the mice were fed with a protein enriched diet. This research adds further weight to the literature emphasising the importance of the microbiome in processing of nutrients and recovery of energy from the diet.


Surgical Metabonomics
By focusing multiple metabolic measuring technologies on the patient at any one moment during their surgical pathway, the quality and depth of prognostic or diagnostic information can also be increased. Several powerful spectroscopic techniques are suitable for surgical metabonomic implementation driven by improved analytical performance and size/cost reductions. We aim to use a combination of NMR and MS technologies to provide unique phenotypic information on the tissue state of the patient and to generate new in situbiomarker diagnostics to help the surgeon where there is an unmet medical need. Magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR spectroscopy is well suited to real-time surgical investigations as no sample preparation is required and allows collection of diagnostic information on pin-head size pieces of tissue biopsy material.
The Patient Journey
Metabolic phenotypes and profiles are modulated by interactions of genes, diet and symbiotic gut microorganismsand influence an individual’s recovery from any therapeutic intervention. Moreover, metabolic phenotypes are responsive to, and predictive of, interventional outcomes. These molecular signatures are data-rich and provide sensitive, specific and efficient vehicles for delivering metabolic phenotype information to aid clinical decision-making. Hence we are initiating a new paradigm for patient stratification based on modelling multi-level patient phenotypes, which could beneficially influence patient outcomes by improving optimisation of therapeutic strategies. Thus, we propose a new vision for improving the patient pathway (See figure), initially focussing on colon and breast cancer but later extending to other areas of oncology. This programme harmonises current scientific and clinical expertise across a range of disparate disciplines and projects, and will provide a vehicle for implementation of these translational molecular approaches in our clinical units.