Professor Berne Ferry

Biography

Professor Berne Ferry has been a Professor of Healthcare Science in the University of Essex since January 8th 2024. Her background is as a consultant clinical scientist and clinical lead of the Clinical Laboratory Immunology service at the Oxford University Hospital Trust (OUH). She was also the Lead Scientist in the Oxford University Hospitals Trust from 2012 till 2017. Berne’s first degree was in Immunology where she was one of the first students on the pioneering new BSc in Immunology at Glasgow University. She obtained her PhD in cancer research from Nottingham University, followed by two postdoctoral positions, one at the University of Helsinki where she worked with world leaders in renal transplantation, and undertook research that contributed to understanding the role of the MHC in hastening transplant rejection and the role that steroid therapy may have in counteracting the effects of these molecule; her second postdoctoral position was at the University of Oxford where she continued to apply ideas and techniques from solid transplantation to explore the role the immune system plays in maternal- feto relationship. In 1987, she was awarded a competitive Unilever Junior research fellow at Green College, University of Oxford. From 1989-1994 she was a senior lecturer at Brunel University where she ran the MSc in Immunology and established a new master’s degree in Medical Genetics and Immunology. Working at Harefield Cardiac Transplant Centre with colleagues from the Brompton, she continued her research exploring the role of the immune system in cardiac transplantation. In 1994, she returned to Oxford to take up her position as a consultant clinical scientist at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospital Trust. She is currently an Associate Fellow of Green Templeton College, University of Oxford. During this time, she developed her clinical experience in Immunology and gained the FRCPath by examination. Over 20 years, she developed a research programme in primary antibody deficiencies as well as initiating a new programme developing novel assays to assess the functional defects in a range of chronic illnesses. She set up the NHS Translational Immunology Research Laboratory in Oxford and is an emeritus associate there. She was the chair of the UK Professional Group for Clinical Scientists in Immunology and sat on the Council of the Association for Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine and on the Themed Board for Blood Sciences at the National School of Healthcare Science. She sat on the NICE guideline development group for coeliac disease and was a longstanding member of the Steering Committee of UK-PIN. She has over 90 peer reviewed published papers and has lectured/spoken in the USA, Czech Republic, UK, Australia, and Scandinavia at conferences and on invited visits. As a Lead Scientist at the Oxford Radcliffe, Berne worked with colleagues in Oxford to raise the profile of the scientific workforce. Under her leadership, OUH Scientists achieved a great deal in those years. They set up an OUH Scientist Advisory Group which has allowed the physicists, the clinical engineers, the life scientists and the physiologists to come together and learn about one another’s work, and they established scientific collaborations and educational and training relationships. In addition to local networks, they also set up and contributed to regional and national networks. OUH scientists along with colleagues from London and Cambridge were instrumental in establishing the Shelford Group of Healthcare Scientists which continues to influence science policies nationally. In addition, the scientists were supportive and very successful in winning NIHR fellowships and were recognised as innovators and rising stars in the Health Service Journals Chief Scientific Officers Awards over the years. In 2017, Berne became Head of School at the National School of Healthcare Science. As Head of School at the National School of Healthcare Science, Berne has raised the profile of healthcare science in Health Education England and other organisations, and has created opportunities for the discipline to be represented where previously it was excluded. Professor Berne Ferry was presented with the Excellence in Healthcare Science Lifetime Achievement award at the NHS England Chief Scientific Officer’s (CSO) Annual Conference in October 2022. Berne was nominated for both her contribution to science over many years and for her leadership in education and training. Her contribution in terms of leadership was particularly recognised during the period since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when she ensured everyone felt supported, included and able to flourish despite the difficult circumstances.