Dr Harvinder Virk

Dr Harvinder Virk is a NIHR clinical lecturer in the Respiratory Sciences department. His research interests centre around identifying and overcoming barriers to clinical translation of research, with an emphasis on improving the outcomes of patients with interstitial lung diseases. He co-leads the Only Good Antibodies team and their three linked projects: Better Antibodies, Better Science, and Better Patient Outcomes. These projects look to identify the most suitable research tools (antibodies) and empower them towards better characterisation of patient heterogeneity. The vision is validated diagnostics that help clinicians choose the best treatment, or clinical trial, more efficiently and robustly. 

He is a member of the Royal College of Physicians, and sits on the Supervisory Board of the UK Reproducibility Network.

He is a previous MRC Clinical Training Fellowship holder and current MRC New Investigator (Better Methods, Better Research).

Publications 2023-2025

Alshalfie, W., Biddle, M., Fotouhi, M., et al. (2024). The identification of high-performing antibodies for FUS (Uniprot ID: P35637) for use in western blot, immunoprecipitation, immunofluorescence and flow cytometry. F1000Research, 12, 376. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.133220.3

Aponte Santiago, N., et al. (2023). Tales of the unexpected. eLife, 12, e87444. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.87444

Ayoubi, R., et al. (2023). Scaling of an antibody validation procedure enables quantification of antibody performance in major research applications. eLife, 12, eRP91645. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.91645.2

Ayoubi, R., et al. (2024). A consensus platform for antibody characterization. Nature Protocols. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41596-024-01095-8 

Biddle, M., et al. (2024). Improving the integrity and reproducibility of research that uses antibodies: a technical, data sharing, behavioral and policy challenge. mAbs, 16(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1080/19420862.2024.2323706

Biddle, M., & Virk, H. S. (2023). YCharOS Open Antibody Characterisation Data: Lessons Learned and Progress Made. F1000Research, 12, 141719. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.141719.1

Biddle, M. S., Alende, C., Fotouhi, M., et al. (2024). A guide to selecting high-performing antibodies for Synaptotagmin-1 (Uniprot ID P21579) for use in western blot, immunoprecipitation, immunofluorescence and flow cytometry. F1000Research, 13, 817. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.154034.1

Kahn, R. A., Virk, H. S., & McPherson, P. S. (2023). Heed a decade of calls for antibody validation. Nature, 620(7974), 492. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-02566-w

Kahn, R. A., Virk, H., Laflamme, C., et al. (2024). Science Forum: Antibody characterization is critical to enhance reproducibility in biomedical research. eLife, 13, e100211. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.100211

Leavy, O., et al. (2025). Sex-specific genetic effects on susceptibility to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis ERJ Open. https://doi.org/10.1183/23120541.00200-2025 

Tsaknis, G., & Virk, H. (2024). Assessment of solitary pulmonary nodule. BMJ Best Practice. (Online Resource)

Others

Harvey, A. G., Stinson, K., Whitaker, K. L., Moskovitz, D., & Virk, H. (2008). The subjective meaning of sleep quality: A comparison of individuals with and without insomnia. Sleep, 31(3), 383-393. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/31.3.383

Virk, H., Arthur, G., & Bradding, P. (2016). Mast cells and their activation in lung disease. Translational Research, 174, 60-76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trsl.2016.01.005 

Virk, H. S., Rekas, M. Z., Biddle, M. S., Wright, A. K. A., Sousa, J., Weston, C. A., Chachi, L., Roach, K. M., & Bradding, P. (2019). Validation of antibodies for the specific detection of human TRPA1. Scientific Reports, 9(1), 18500. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-55133-7 

Virk, H. S., Biddle, M. S., Smallwood, D. T., Weston, C. A., Castells, E., Bowman, V. W., McCarthy, J., Amrani, Y., Sm, D., Bradding, P., & others. (2021). TGFβ1 induces resistance of human lung myofibroblasts to cell death via downregulation of TRPA1 channels. British Journal of Pharmacology. https://doi.org/10.1111/bph.15467 

Merchant, F., Mavilakandy, A., Virk, H. S., Khan, S., Tsaknis, G., Naeem, M., Mallik, S., Datson, K., & Reddy, R. (2022). Lack of Benefit of High Flow Nasal Oxygen Therapy as Ceiling of Treatment for Severe COVID-19 Pneumonitis in Elderly Frail Patients: A Single Centre Observational Study. The Open Respiratory Medicine Journal, 15.10.2174/18743064-v15-e2206271

2 PhD studentships

Bioinformatics MSc

BSc 3rd year projects

BHF MRes

Team includes: 1 x postdoctoral RA, 1 project manager, 2 research assistants

MRC AIM DTP and Midlands Integrative Biosciences Training Partnership - Antibody Validation Masterclasses

Module lead: Medicine, Society and Responsible Research

Please contact me if interested in iMSc projects or PhD projects

Current projects/ funding:-

NC3R (PI) - Characterisation of antibodies and affinity reagents to promote the adoption of robust and reproducible non-animal reagents

MRC Better Methods, Better Research New Investigator Grant (PI)- ICF Improving the integrity, reproducibility, and usability of biomedical research that utilises commercial antibodies

NIHR INSPIRE Network INDEX (Interstitial Lung Disease Exacerbation) Study - National observational study to understand heterogeneity in care, management and outcomes of acute exacerbations of ILD

Biomarker discovery and target validation utilising the YCharOS antibody characterisation pipeline. Medical Research Council (Leicester) 2024-02 to 2024-11 | Locally awarded MRC Impact Accelerator with support from Leicester Drug Discovery and Diagnostics (PI)

The Only Good Antibodies Community Stakeholder Engagement Meeting. Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (Swindon). 2023-06 to 2024-03 | Locally awarded BBSRC Impact Accelerator, Event (PI)

Knowledge and skills exchange to lay the foundations for the international expansion of YCharOS: an Open Science, third party antibody characterisation public good company. Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council IAA (Swindon). 2023-06 to 2024-03 | Locally awarded BBSRC Impact Accelerator, Exchange (PI)

Using fluorescent biosensors to understand mechanisms of lung ageing. Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (Swindon).(Co-PI) 2023-06 to 2024-03 | Locally awarded BBSRC Impact Accelerator, Proof of concept

https://leicesterbrc.nihr.ac.uk/hdv/

F1000 Open Thinking

eLife Digest

Nature Feature