Dr David Lissauer PhD MbCHB

Department of Metabolism and Systems Science
Honorary Clinical Research Fellow

Contact details

Email: d.m.lissauer@bham.ac.uk

Address: Academic Department
Birmingham Women's Hospital Foundation Trust
Mindelsohn Way, Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TG

David is a clinical lecturer in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. He combining his academic work with clinical duties as an Obstetrics and Gynaecology registrar at Birmingham Women’s Hospital NHS Trust.

David’s research interests are maternal immunology and maternal global health.

Qualifications

PhD 2012
MBChB (Honours) 2004
BMedSci (Class I) 2001

Biography

David qualified MBChB with honours from the University of Birmingham in 2004. During his undergraduate studies he received a number of awards including the Vice Chancellor’s Prize, the Sir Arthur Thomson Gold Medal, the Ingelby Scholarship for Obstetrics and Gynaecology, the Sir Arthur Thomson Prize and the Sands-Cox scholarship.

He subsequently has completed a Wellbeing of Women funded research training fellowship investigating the maternal cellular immune response to fetal antigens, for which he has been awarded his PhD.

He is currently undertaking combined clinical training and academic work as a Clinical Lecturer.

Prior to his research fellowship David undertook a year of clinical work as a registrar at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, Malawi. Research on global maternal health issues continues to be an important interest.

Teaching

MB ChB course
2^nd year RED module
5^th year Obstetrics and Gynaecology module
GEC programme

Postgraduate supervision

PhD studentship to be advertised investigating ““Villitis of unknown aetiology: a potential process of fetal allograft rejection”

Research

David’s research interests are in the field of maternal infection and immunity, the problem of recurrent miscarriage and global maternal health.

Maternal Infection and Immunity: The modulation of the maternal immune response to the fetus is key to successful pregnancy and remains an enigma. David’s work investigates the cellular immune response to the fetus during pregnancy and in particular has identified and characterised a functional, maternal T lymphocyte response to fetal antigens during human pregnancy. He is also interested in the interactions of viral infection with maternal immunity and on translating improvements in our understanding of maternal immunology to better care of women with complications of pregnancy.

Recurrent Miscarriage: David is currently investigating the immunological causes of recurrent miscarriage and the immunological effects of potential treatments. He is also studying other placental disorders associated with adverse pregnancy outcome.

Global Health: David is engaged in evidence synthesis of interventions to reduce maternal mortality in low income countries and clinical trials to address the global burden of maternal mortality.

Other activities

Trustee of maternal health charity Ammalife

Coordinator of the Birmingham Women’s Hospital – GoGo Chatinkha Maternity Unit, Malawi Hospital Link

Publications

Lissauer D, Piper K, Goodyear O, Kilby MD, Moss PAH. Fetal-specific CD8+ cytotoxic T cell responses develop during normal human pregnancy and exhibit broad functional capacity. Journal of Immunology, (2012), June 8 (e pub ahead of print).

Wilson A, Gallos I, Plana N, Lissauer D, Khan KS, Zamora J, MacArthur C, Coomarasamy A. Effectiveness of strategies incorporating training and support of Traditional Birth Attendants on maternal and perinatal outcomes: a meta-analysis. BMJ (2011),343:d7102

Lissauer D, Chaudhary M, Pachnio A, Moss P, Kilby M. Cytomegalovirus sero-positivity dramatically alters the maternal CD8+ T cell repertoire and leads to the accumulation of highly differentiated memory cells during human pregnancy. Human Reproduction (2011), 26(12):3355-3365.

Wilson A, Lissauer D, Thangaratinam S, Khan K, MacArthur C, Coomarasamy A. A comparison of clinical officers with medical doctors on caesarean section outcomes in the developing world: A meta-analysis of controlled studies. BMJ (2011), 342:d2600.

Lissauer D, Piper KP, Moss PA, Kilby MD. Fetal microchimerism: the cellular and immunological legacy of pregnancy. Expert Rev Mol Med. (2009), 11: 33.

Lissauer D, Piper KP, Moss PAH, Kilby MD. Persistence of fetal cells in the mother: friend or foe? BJOG. (2007), 114 (11):1321-5.

Junying J, Herrmann K, Davies G, Lissauer D, Bell A, Timms J, Reynolds GM, Hubscher SG, Young LS, Niedobitek G, Murray PG. Absence of Epstein-Barr virus DNA in the tumor cells of european hepatocellular carcinoma. Virology (2003), 306(2): 236-43.

*Murray PG, *Lissauer D, Junying J, Davies G, Moore S, Bell A, Timms J, Rowlands D, McConkey C, Reynolds GM, Ghataura S, England D, Caroll R, Young LS. Reactivity with a monoclonal antibody to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) nuclear antigen 1 defines a subset of aggressive breast cancers in the absence of the EBV genome. Cancer Research (2003); 63(9): 2338-43. (*Joint first authors)

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