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Staff Profile

Dr Wezi Sendama

MRC Clinician Scientist

Background

Introduction

I am a clinician scientist with an interest in the mechanisms of the resolution of inflammation in the lungs, particularly in ageing.

I graduated from Newcastle University Medical School in 2011 and completed my Foundation and Core Medical Training in the Northern region. I undertook doctoral research at Newcastle University alongside my clinical specialty training in respiratory medicine. My PhD exploring the mechanisms of pulmonary inflammation in ageing and chronic lung disease was awarded in 2022. I was subsequently appointed as an NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Respiratory Medicine at Newcastle University to undertake further research with a focus on lung immunity.

I was awarded an MRC Clinician Scientist Fellowship in 2026 to investigate disordered inflammation in the lungs of older survivors of pneumonia. As well as leading this research, I see patients with interstitial lung diseases in my role as an Honorary Consultant in Respiratory Medicine at the Royal Victoria Infirmary.

Qualifications

MBBS, Newcastle University, 2011

MRCP(UK), Royal College of Physicians, 2015

Specialty Certificate Examination in Respiratory Medicine, 2019

PhD, Newcastle University, 2022

Postgraduate Certificate in Rare Lung Diseases, ERN-LUNG Academy, 2023

Other roles

Honorary Consultant Respiratory Physician, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Member, MRCP(UK) Clinical Science Specialty Question Group

Associate editor, Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine

Early Career Group Editor-in-Training, American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine

Research

I am part of the PRINCIPLE (Paediatric, Respiratory, INtensive Care, Immunity and PuLmonary Epithelium) Research Group. I have a research interest in the mechanisms of the resolution of inflammation in the lung, particularly in ageing and in critical illness.

The research programme supported by my MRC Clinician Scientist Fellowship seeks to understand the mechanisms by which inflammation resolves incompletely in the lungs of older people who survive pneumonia, and we aim to develop treatments to improve health outcomes for this group of patients.

I am a co-investigator on the INSIGHT-AM trial, a study that seeks to explore the impact of inhaled sargramostim (GM-CSF) on the function of alveolar macrophages, a set of cells with an important role in lung inflammation and immunity.

I also investigate the roles of lung immune cells in the exposure-related interstitial lung disease hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP).

Funding and prizes

MRC Clinician Scientist Fellowship: Inflammation resolution in older survivors of pneumonia, 2026-2031. £1.57m

EPSRC BIOREME Small Starter Grant, support for research visit to the Statistical Biophysics laboratory (Dr Aleksandra Walczak), École Normale Supérieure, Paris, 2025. £1,000

Google Cloud Academic Research Grant, T cell receptor repertoires in interstitial lung disease, 2024-2025. US$5,000

Medical Research Council Experimental Medicine grant: Key mechanisms underlying inhaled GM-CSF's enhancement of phagocytosis and bacterial clearance by human alveolar macrophages (researcher co-investigator; PI Prof John Simpson), 2022-2025. £1.24m

Royal Society of Medicine Respiratory Registrar Research Award, 2023. £100

Best Oral Presentation prize at 2020 NIHR Newcastle BRC Trainee Showcase. £100

Wellcome Trust ISSF Broadening Our Horizons fund, to attend Next Generation Sequencing Data Analysis: A Practical Introduction bioinformatics workshop in Munich, 8-10 May 2019. £1,941

Publications