Vadim Taraban, MD, PhD, FHEA, FIBMS

Vadim has an extensive experience in conducting biomedical research and teaching undergraduate students both in Russia and the United Kingdom. Having graduated as a medical doctor, he initially received specialisation in Clinical Immunology, which included periods of hospital practice in Haematology and Rheumatology and extensive laboratory training in Molecular and Cellular Biology and Immunology. Soon after that he joined a research laboratory with a strong interest in stem cells and immunosuppression, to study the newly emerged group of regulatory cells called myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC). Subsequently, his PhD project involved assessing the mechanisms which underlie a surprising ability of myeloid haematopoietic precursors both to suppress the response of T cells and to inhibit tumour growth.

Since then, Vadim has extended his interest in tumour immunology and, following his move to Southampton University in 2000, focused on the regulation of T cell functions through co-stimulatory receptors belonging to the TNFR superfamily. He studied a number of signalling pathways mediated by the death receptor 3 (DR3 or TNFRSF25), OX40 (CD134), 4-1BB (CD137) and CD27, with particular emphasis on their probing as potential targets for therapeutic interventions in cancer, inflammation and autoimmunity. As a Visiting Research Fellow at Barts Cancer Institute, he has also been studying the role of human polynucleotide phosphorylase (PNPase/PNPT1) in regulation of lymphocyte activation and pathogenesis of the chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.

Following a spell at London South Bank University as a Senior Lecturer in Human Biology and a Course Directors in Biosciences, Vadim developed and led on a BSc (Hons) Biomedical Science programme at Solent University, Southampton. He has recently joined the University of Winchester as a Programme Leader to continue developing his research and teaching interests in Biomedical Sciences.