Category: Team Members

Ryan Mathew is an Associate Professor at the University of Leeds and an Honorary Consultant Neurosurgeon at Leeds Teaching Hospitals. His clinical practice covers the full spectrum of general neurosurgery with a subspecialty interest in brain tumours; in particular gliomas, meningiomas and awake surgery.

After completing his PhD in Glioma Stem Cells and Organoids, and spending time at the Brain Tumour Research Centre at Sickkids in Toronto, he began co-leading the Stem Cells and Brain Tumour Lab Group where his focus is on translational approaches to technologies that deliver local therapeutic treatments.

As Neurosurgery Lead for the NIHR Surgical MedTech Cooperative, NIHR Surgical Technologies Academy Incubator and Royal College of Surgeons of England Leeds Institute of Clinical Trials Research, he also leads a research portfolio in surgical technologies and devices which encompasses virtual/mixed reality, machine learning/AI, real-time intra-operative tumour visualisation and histology, and local therapeutic delivery. He is Health Lead for Leeds XR, the Basic/Translational Science Lead for the Academic Committee of the Society of British Neurological Surgeons, member of the British Neuro-Oncology Society Research Subcommittee, a HoloMedicine Association Founding Member and Core Committee member of the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission Novel Therapeutics Accelerator.

He has published numerous papers, is an internationally invited speaker and teaching faculty, peer-reviews for a number of journals and grant award committees, and has obtained > £8M in grant funding (PI or Co-I).

Professor Wah has been appointed at the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHT) as Consultant in Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology since 2003 with sub-speciality interest in Interventional Oncology. She is passionate about practising evidence-based medicine and committed to the highest standards of research methodology. Since 2004, she has established, developed and leads an internationally recognised, clinical and research programme in Interventional Oncology (IO).

IO is an underrepresented clinical discipline and Professor Wah was inspired by the stories of patients that she had treated, in 2015, she led the formation of Interventional Oncology United Kingdom (IOUK) within British Society of Interventional Radiology (BSIR) to address this gap and was the founding chair for IOUK(BSIR) from 2015-2018. Subsequently, she led a cross-sectional study highlighting the lack of equity for patients to access IO services in the UK (BMJ open,2017-doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2017-016631).

In Aug 2022, University of Leeds recognised her steadfast commitment in IO clinical academia and she was appointed the first Professor of Interventional Radiology at University of Leeds, a historic achievement as the ‘UK-First’ female Professor of IO.

Faisal Mushtaq is Professor of Cognitive Science and Director of the Centre for Immersive Technologies at the University of Leeds. Mushtaq’s research sits at the interface between Psychology, Engineering, and Computer Science. He is founder of the Immersive Cognition Lab which specialises in the study of learning and skill acquisition using virtual environments. He co-leads the Immersive Healthcare Collaborative, a network of scientists, clinicians and industry leaders committed to supporting the implementation of safe and effective virtual and augmented reality technologies in healthcare training and delivery.

Profile Coming Soon

Fiazia has worked in clinical trials for the past ten years. She joined the Dermatology trials team at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust in 2015 and more recently worked as a Clinical Trials Coordinator in Trauma and Orthopaedics in the Leeds Institute of Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Medicine, University of Leeds.

Fiazia has a background in research completing her MRes in Drug safety and a PhD in Pharmacology (Drug Hypersensitivity) at the University of Liverpool in 2015. She is passionate about research and facilitating new therapies to the clinic.