After his Biochemistry degree, Dr David Gibson worked at Randox Laboratories Ltd, where he was responsible for designing and commercialising novel biochip array diagnostic tests.

He was awarded a PhD in 2001 from the Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology, Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), for research which exposed the role of cysteine proteinases in brain tumour invasion.

During a Wellcome Trust Fellowship Dr Gibson investigated the role of inflammation in a hypoxia driven model of diabetic retinopathy at the Centre of Vision and Vascular Science, QUB.

Since 2003 Dr Gibson focused his research efforts on the discovery and validation of protein biomarkers which could improve the management of arthritis patients.

During his time at the Rooney laboratory in the Centre of Infection and Immunity, QUB he spearheaded the use of proteomic and bioinformatics strategies to discover clinically useful biomarker candidates. He also identified post translational modifications in the Vitamin D binding protein that may act as a modulator of inflammation in juvenile arthritis patients.

In 2009, Dr Gibson was awarded a prestigious travel fellowship from Arthritis Research UK to conduct mass spectrometry based research at the Duncan laboratory at the University of Colorado, Denver over two years.

In 2013 Dr Gibson took up his post as Lecturer in Personalised Medicine and his research is focused on adult rheumatoid arthritis (RA). He is particularly interested in the development of new prognostic and predictive tools to improve the clinical management of arthritis patients.

He employs novel proteomic based methods to robustly identify and quantify disease associated proteins in blood. He is also interested in the application of protein array technologies for autoantibody screening and flow cytometry in measuring B- and T-cell activation.

He has established research programmes in three key areas:
1. Biomarkers of response to disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs.
2. Pharmacogenomic test development and implementation into healthcare to improve treatment efficacy and safety.
3. Alternate blood sampling methods to support home based monitoring of arthritis (BloodTrackR).

Ultimately, Dr Gibsons group will develop novel monitoring tools to help clinicians target those patients who do not respond well to current therapeutics or develop drug resistance over time. This could allow earlier more effective treatments in RA patients, thus preventing joint damage and reducing disability.

1. Biochemistry and Cell Biology
2. Inflammatory and Immunological Disease
3. DNA Sequencing and Omics technologies
4. Disease and Treatment 2

Administrative Roles

Research Group Lead, Personalised Medicine Centre