Matthew Graham-Brown

BHF/NIHR BRC Academic Clinical Lecturer, Renal Medicine

mgb23@le.ac.uk 

Qualifications

BSc (Hons), Biological Sciences, University of Birmingham, 2005
MBChB (Hons), Warwick University, 2009
MRCP (UK), 2012
MRes, University of Leicester, 2015
PhD, Loughborough University, 2018
MRCP (Renal), 2019
FHEA, 2022

Profile

Dr Graham-Brown is an Academic Clinical Lecturer in renal medicine jointly funded by the BHF Accelerator Award and the Leicester NIHR BRC, as well as performing duties as an Honorary Consultant Nephrologist at the University Hospitals of Leicester. He trained in Medicine at the University of Warwick as a postgraduate, having completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Birmingham. He completed Foundation training and core medical training in the West Midlands before moving to Leicester, initially as a higher specialist trainee in renal medicine before being appointed as an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow and after his PhD was appointed as an NIHR Clinical Lecturer for to continue his research whilst completing his clinical training. His research interests are aligned with his clinical interests around CardioRenal disease, kidney transplantation and the associated cardiovascular and metabolic consequences. He is the current co-chair of the National CardioRenal Clinical Study Group and of the UK Kidney Association Special Interest Group Living Well With Kidney Disease and a member of the National Clinical Study Groups for Transplantation, Renal Anaemia and Lifestyle and Exercise. His is past Chair of the UK SpR Club for Renal Medicine and co-founded the NephWork – a National research and audit network for renal trainees. He holds around £400,000 in externally funded grants, including 3 year project grants from the BHF and Kidney Research UK. He currently supervises 2 PhD students and has supervised multiple intercalating BSc and MSc students, all of whom have been awarded Distinctions.

Research

Dr Graham-Brown’s research focuses on understanding and mitigating cardiovascular disease in patients with kidney disease. He trained in advanced Cardiac MRI in Professor McCann’s lab and has led work defining the roles of novel imaging techniques to phenotype aspects of uraemic cardiomyopathy in patients with advanced chronic kidney disease. He has developed and leads a number of clinical trials testing the effects of exercise, lifestyle and novel dialysis strategies on cardiovascular in patients with advanced chronic kidney disease, patients on dialysis and patients who have received a kidney transplant. He supports work that explores sarcopaenia in patients with kidney disease and is exploring the links between the muscle secretome and cardiovascular disease for these patients. He has led and collaborated on studies that have defined the antibody response to vaccination against COVID-19 in patients on haemodialysis that have influenced National guidance on the provision of booster doses for this vulnerable patient group

Current Grants

• NIGHTLIFE-CMR: A cardiac MRI sub-study Investigating the impact of in-centre nocturnal haemodialysis on cardiac structure and function. BHF Project Grant. £146,055.72. Chief Investigator
• A multi-centre prospective single-blind wait-list randomised controlled trial with nested pilot, of the clinical value and economic evaluation of an online physical and emotional wellbeing resource for the improvement of health-related quality of life in people with chronic kidney disease: The Kidney Beam Trial. Kidney Research UK project grant. Co-Applicant. 159,872.00
• Phenotyping seroconversion following vaccination against COVID-19 in patients on haemodialysis. Leicester Hospitals Charity. Chief Investigator. £9,500
• Immunogenicity of COVID-19 vaccination in patients with renal disease. Kidney Research UK. Collaborator. £230,000
• Exploring the meaning, experiences and barriers to advanced care planning in people with end-stage kidney disease on dialysis. Leicester Hospitals Charity Kidney Care Appeal funding. Chief Investigator. £2700

• A Pilot randomised controlled trial of the effects of a structured, home-based Exercise program on Cardiovascular StructurE and function in Renal Transplant recipients. The ECSERT study. Chief Investigator. £181,313.45

• Validating the accuracy of novel, non-contrast, Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging in defining myocardial FibRosis in patients with end-stage renal disease on haeModialysis: The CONFIRM study. Kidney Research UK. Grant Active. March 2018. Co-Investigator. £47,744.00

• Responding to the needs of patients with IgA nephropathy: A social media approach. April 2017. Kidney Research UK Innovation Grant. Co-Investigator. £38,322.80

Selected publications

ORCID ID: 0000-0002-6197-180X

• Graham-Brown MPM, March DS, Young R, Highton PJ, Young HML, Churchward DR, Dungey M, Stensel DJ, Bishop NC, Brunskill NJ, Smith AC, McCann GP, McConnachie A, Burton JO. A randomized controlled trial to investigate the effects of intra-dialytic cycling on left ventricular mass. Kidney Int. 2021 Jun;99(6):1478-1486.
  
  
• Carr EJ, Wu M, Harvey R, Billany RE, Wall EC, Kelly G; Haemodialysis COVID-19 consortium; Crick COVID Immunity Pipeline, Howell M, Kassiotis G, Swanton C, Gandhi S, Bauer DL, Graham-Brown MP, Jones RB, Smith RM, McAdoo S, Willicombe M, Beale R. Omicron neutralising antibodies after COVID-19 vaccination in haemodialysis patients. Lancet 2022 Jan. doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)00104-0
  
  
• Carr EJ, Wu M, Harvey R, Wall EC, Kelly G, Hussain S, Howell M, Kassiotis G, Swanton C, Gandhi S, Bauer DL; Haemodialysis COVID-19 consortium; Crick COVID Immunity Pipeline, Billany RE, Graham-Brown MP, Beckett J, Bull K, Shankar S, Henderson S, Motallebzadeh R, Salama AD, Harper L, Mark PB, McAdoo S, Willicombe M, Beale R. Neutralising antibodies after COVID-19 vaccination in UK haemodialysis patients. Lancet. 2021 Aug 12:S0140-6736(21)01854-7.
  
  
• March DS, Hurt AW, Grantham CE, Churchward DR, Young HML, Highton PJ, Dungey M, Bishop NC, Smith AC, Graham-Brown MPM, Cooper NJ, Burton JO. A Cost-Effective Analysis of the CYCLE-HD Randomized Controlled Trial. Kidney Int Rep. 2021 Apr 8;6(6):1548-1557.
  
  
• Vasilica C, Oates T, Clausner C, Ormandy P, Barratt J, Graham-Brown M. Identifying Information Needs of Patients With IgA Nephropathy Using an Innovative Social Media-stepped Analytical Approach. Kidney Int Rep. 2021 Mar 2;6(5):1317-1325.
  
  
• Adenwalla SF, Billany RE, March DS, Gulsin GS, Young HML, Highton P, Churchward DC, Young R, Careless A, Tomlinson CL, McCann GP, Burton JO, Graham-Brown MPM. The cardiovascular determinants of physical function in patients with end-stage kidney disease on haemodialysis. Int J Cardiovasc Imaging. 2021 Apr;37(4):1405-1414.

• Graham-Brown MPM, Churchward DR, Hull KL, et al. Cardiac Remodelling in Patients Undergoing in-Centre Nocturnal Haemodialysis: Results from the MIDNIGHT Study, a Non-Randomized Controlled Trial. Blood Purif. 2017;44(4):301-310.
  
  
• Graham-Brown MP, Rutherford E, Levelt E, March DS, Churchward DR, Stensel DJ, McComb C, Mangion K, Cockburn S, Berry C, Moon JC, Mark PB, Burton JO, McCann GP. Native T1 mapping: inter-study, inter-observer and inter-center reproducibility in hemodialysis patients. J Cardiovasc Magn Reson. 2017 Feb 27;19(1):21.

• Graham-Brown MP, March DS, Churchward DR, et al. Novel cardiac nuclear magnetic resonance method for noninvasive assessment of myocardial fibrosis in hemodialysis patients. October 2016, Vol 90, Issue 4, 835-844