London Innovation in Engineering Enterprise Fellow

Royal Academy of Engineering
UCL Innovation and Enterprise
2018
London, United Kingdom, RAEng Enterprise Hub

Developing software that supports researchers with tools to streamline and widen access to health research and technologies to improve outcomes for any project.

More to come…

Computer Science (Programming)

Harvard University
2018 – 2019
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

Application design and development, gaming, database design, scalability and security, interactive user interface design, and data science using multiple languages including C, Python, Javascript, HTML and CSS. Also frameworks such as Flask, Heroku and Django.

Senior Research Associate

University College London, Department of Neuroinflammation
2017-2019
London, United Kingdom UCL Institute of Neurology, Queen Square

Project: Honorary Senior Research Associate post for extended work on Longitudinal changes in metabolite concentrations and lesion development in EAE and Multiple Sclerosis using 1H-MR Spectroscopy and MRI.

Patient and Public Involvement in Clinical Trials, Consultancy

National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, NHS
2017-2018
London, United Kingdom, UCLH and the UCL Institute of Neurology

Designed and developed the patient/public involvement programme for a new clinical trial investigating microbiome in early Motor Neurone Disease patients.  The programme involved physical and virtual involvement in the design of the research and collecting data, insight, and impact metrics for the earliest phases of the study.

Neuroimaging Research Consultancy

Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging
2017-2018
London, United Kingdom UCL Institute of Neurology, Queen Square

Content development for patient/public facing research, methods, and engagement activities at the Centre.

Amber worked with twenty-two Principal Investigators to develop and co-design accessible content for patients and public. This subsequently formed a cohesive strategy that integrates the wide variety of their individual research. The outcome is a new website and branding identity of a unified and public-facing Neuroimaging Centre.

Patient/Public Involvement, Engagement, and Communications in Clinical Research

Leonard Wolfson Experimental Neurology Centre (LWENC), Clinical Research Facility (CRF)
2015-2017
University College London Hospital, NHS Trust

Amber worked directly with patients, clinicians and nursing staff developing a new patient/public involvement and engagement (PPI/E) programme at the Clinical Research Facility (CRF). She was responsible for:

(i) The development and implementation of a novel PPI/E programme.
(ii) Designing collaborative solutions facilitating user involvement/engagement in translational research development with patients, carers, and the public.
(iii) collecting and analysing metrics and assessing the impact of the LWENC CRF.

Masters of Science (Clinical Neuroscience, in-vitro knock-out stem cells)

University of Roehampton, Department of Life Sciences
Awarded 2010 (Distinction/Summa Cum Laude)
London, United Kingdom
Dissertation: Role of 9-cis retinoic acid against amyloid beta [1-40]-induced neural stem cell toxicity and the mediating role of endogenous interleukin 1 beta (Distinction/Summa Cum Laude)

Research Assistant (Experimental Neuroinflammation)

UCL Institute of Neurology, Department of Neuroinflammation
Experimental Neuroinflammation Group
June 2010 – October 2011 (1 year 5 months)
London, United Kingdom

Project – Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis immunohistochemical investigation of hypoxia and superoxide production in the spinal cord

Research Interests: immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence, confocal microscopy, energy deficiency in multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, reactive oxygen species, hypoxia, axonal injury

Clinical Trial Data Manager
(Research Assistant)

Queen Square Multiple Sclerosis Research Centre, UCL
2015
London, United Kingdom

MS-SMART is a clinical research trial lead by Dr. Jeremy Chataway investigating whether three potential drug treatments could slow or halt disability progression in people with Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis.

The trial has 15 sites collaborating nationally. Amber managed the clinical research data and sponsor queries for the electronic case report forms in the Queen Square MS Centre, for the first 113 patients.

Research Associate, Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy

University College London, Department of Brain Repair and Rehabilitation
(Honorary Research Contract)
2013-2015
Queen Square Multiple Sclerosis Research Centre, London UK

Project – Investigating metabolic and gray matter in patients with Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis. Amber analyzed patient MRI and spectroscopy data, inclusive of pre-clinical translational data in collaboration with clinical researchers. The aim was to compare and translate pre-clinical data to clinical findings.

Research Intern, Psychiatry

Vanderbilt University, Psychiatry Department
2007 (Summer)
Nashville, Tennessee, United States

Project – Neural basis of cognitive control disturbances and emotional self-regulation in Major Depressive Disorder

Publications

2017 papers in progress from Amber’s PhD thesis – Longitudinal changes in metabolite concentrations and lesion development in EAE and multiple sclerosis using 1H-MR Spectroscopy and MRI.

Amber Michelle Hill, Mohamed Tachrount, David L Thomas, Kenneth J Smith, Xavier Golay, and Olga Ciccarelli. N-acetyl aspartate predicts disease severity in an animal model of multiple sclerosis (MS). ISMRM 2016.

Torben Schneider, Gemma Nejati-Gilani, Mohamed Tachrount, Ying Li, Amber M Hill, Olga Ciccarelli, Ken Smith, David Thomas, Daniel C Alexander, and Claudia A M Wheeler-Kingshott. Diffusion MRI reveals tissue specific changes in early and late stages of degeneration within the spinal cord. ISMRM 2015.

Amber Michelle Hill and Olga Ciccarelli. Preclinical and Clinical Applications of 1H-MRS in the Spinal Cord in Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy: Tools for Neuroscience Research and Emerging Clinical Applications, 1st Edition. Oxford, United Kingdom: Elsevier. 2014.

Amber Michelle Hill, Mohamed Tachrount, Nils Mulhert, Dan Altmann, Alan Thompson, and Olga Ciccarelli. Metabolic changes in the grey matter and its association with cognitive impairment in relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis. Queen Square Symposium 2013.

Amber Michelle Hill, Bernadett Kalmar, Mona Sadeghian, and Linda Greensmith. An in vivo measurement of superoxide radical production in mutant SOD1 mice. UCL Institute of Neurology Queen Square Symposium, 2012.*Finalist

Amber Michelle Hill and Professor Kenneth Smith. Demyelinating lesion induced by the intraspinal injection of bacterial lipopolysaccharide. UCL Institute of Neurology: Multiple Sclerosis Symposium London, oral presentation, 2010.

Amber Michelle Hill and Professor Seth Chin Parker. The interaction of knowledge and learning with cross-classified items. Denison University Summer Research Scholars Symposium, poster presentation. Granville, Ohio, United States, 2006.

Remedica Publications: Journals that Amber’s reviews were published in can be found here.