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People in Injury, Recovery, and Inflammation Sciences

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Joanne Stocks

Assistant Professor in Rehabilitation Technology, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences

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Biography

Joanne is Assistant Professor in Rehabilitation Technology in the Department of Physiotherapy & Rehabilitation Sciences in the School of Health Sciences.

As a member of the NIHR Nottingham BRC Musculoskeletal, Surgery, Inflammation and Recovery theme, and Associate member of the Centre for Sport, Exercise and Osteoarthritis Research Versus Arthritis, she has a research interest in the area of healthy ageing, focusing on the role of nutrition in frailty, osteoarthritis and pain.

Joanne is working on a Versus Arthritis-funded study investigating Biomarkers and Joint Pain in Military Osteoarthritis (Bio-Mil-OA), and whilst undertaking an MRes in Bioinformatics is also investigating the differences between 16s rRNA and shotgun sequencing for the taxonomic characterization of the gut microbiota in patients with osteoarthritis.

Joanne is also leading the development of a mobile phone app 'HealthScout' and data collection platform to collect Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMS) in Nottingham University Hospital's Musculoskeletal clinics. She is PI on a study funded to look at gut microbiome diversity in athletes, as well as Co-I of 'Running Through' a study of recreational runners, their injuries, performance and COVID-19 monitored through smartwatch technology. She was also co-moderator of the community participation working group creating the Research Data Alliance's Covid-19 Recommendations and Guidelines.

In addition, Joanne is working on a number of projects as a member of Pain Centre Versus Arthritis. These include as co-investigator of ReStARt (Reducing STiffness After knee ReplacemenT), a study to optimise physiotherapy for arthrofibrosis, and a collaboration with the OA Trial Bank to identify placebo responders and predictors of response to osteoarthritis treatment using individual patient data.

Joanne is a facilitator for Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) activities and is the module convenor for the BMedSci Patient and Public Involvement in Research module.

Teaching Summary

Joanne is module convenor for the BMedSci 'Patient and Public Involvement in Research' module and teaches on Masters in Public Health and Global Public Health 'Research Methods' modules.

Previously, Joanne taught on the MSc Sports and Exercise Medicine and MSc Applied Sports and Exercise Medicine courses and was convenor for the 'Research Methods for Sports and Exercise Medicine' and 'Common Sporting Injuries: An Evidence Base', 'Physical Activity Epidemiology', 'Qualitative Methodology and Analysis', and 'Project and Dissertation: Sports and Exercise Medicine' modules.

Joanne has successfully completed her PGCHE qualification, which included an educational inquiry project on the 'Importance of communication in the effective involvement of public and patients in PhD student research.'

Selected Publications

Past Research

Joanne graduated from Leeds University with a BSc (Hons) degree in Sports Science and Physiology. She obtained a PhD in Respiratory Medicine from the University of Nottingham, under the supervision of Prof Alan Knox, where her research investigated the 'Production of soluble angiogenic factors by airway smooth muscle'. This research was a continuation of a molecular and cellular research project begun during her Oncology MSc degree (University of Nottingham). During her PhD, Joanne was also awarded a Universitas 21 scholarship to spend time working in the laboratories of Prof Alastair Stewart at the University of Melbourne's Department of Pharmacology.

Following her PhD Joanne worked for a biotechnology company, developing and optimising a directed chemotherapy assay for determining cancer treatments for pets. Alongside this role, she continued working at the University of Nottingham in the Division of Epidemiology and Public Health on a number of projects, which included assessing the impact of the National Schools Fruit Scheme on the health and diet of children and investigating the effectiveness of smoking intervention programs.

Joanne then began researching cardiac stem cell biology and regenerative medicine, focusing on the cellular and molecular responses of the heart to exercise at Liverpool John Moore's University. She then transferred to the Ichan School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute, New York to continue the collaboration and to work with Dr Valentin Fuster and Prof Roger Hajjar investigating the dedifferentiation of adult cardiomyocytes and the protective paracrine effects of cardiac progenitor cells on cultured adult myocytes.

On her return to the UK, Joanne was involved in a variety of basic science, epidemiological and clinical research projects at the University of Nottingham and Loughborough University.

School of Medicine

University of Nottingham
Medical School
Nottingham, NG7 2UH

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