Dr Julia Y Brown

Director of Business & Marketing

School of Life and Health Sciences
Aston University
Aston Triangle
Birmingham B4 7ET
UK

Room: MB West 626
Tel: +44 (0) 121 204 3908
email: j.y.brown@aston.ac.uk

Profile

There are two sides to my role Business and Marketing but these are linked by a common theme “Community Engagement”. I am Chair of the LHS Business & Community Engagement Committee.

My main duties and responsibilities include:

Raising regional, national and international awareness of Life & Health Sciences through community engagement, business development & marketing activities
Strategic development of the LHS website
Developing and implementing an internal communications strategy
Producing promotional materials and products
Special projects and events e.g. Community Engagement activities with Schools
Public relations activities of the School; managing the School’s relationship with the media
Business activities associated with CPD, Conferences, Consultancy and the Schools Clinics
To coordinate and lead the marketing activities for the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, to be responsible for the marketing of LHS programmes, including CPD, regionally, nationally and internationally

Career History

2009 - Aston University, LHS
Director of Business & Marketing

2009 - Community Pathways CIC
Director

2008 - Awarded the Aston Excellence Award for an outstanding contribution to Community Engagement

2006 - 2007 University of Leicester
Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education Leadership (Distinction)

2005 - 2008 Aston University, LHS
Business Development Manager

2004 - 2005 Aston University
MEDICI Fellowship

2003 - 2005 OU Lecturer
Taught UG Level 3 Molecular & Cell Biology by DL

2003 - 2004 Aston University, LHS
Lecturer in Cell & Molecular Biology

2001 - 2003 University of Keele, Staffordshire
Lecturer in Parasitology/Cell Biology

1998 - 2001 University of Wolverhampton
Research Assistant/PhD Molecular Pharmacology
Lectured in Medical Parasitology

1995 - 1998 University of Leicester
Researcher in the Department of Genetics

1994 - 1995 University of Leicester
MSc. Molecular Genetics
Patented an idea for a Malaria Diagnostic Test
Awarded The Amersham Prize - for Innovation and Persistence

1993 - 1994 Vale of Catmose College, Oakham, Rutland
Teacher of Science

1992 - 1993 Keele University, Staffordshire
Demonstrator and Researcher, published results of Final Year project

1988 -1992 Keele University, Staffordshire
BSc. 2:1 (Hons)
Principal degree subjects: Biology and Psychology.
Subsidiary subjects: Chemistry and Russian Studies.

Concurrent Certificate in Education, Secondary Education Teacher of Science (DES reference number RP91/36203)

Recent funding

Food Safety Training £57K

A joint grant with Birmingham City Council from the Food Standards Agency to deliver a project called Safer Food Better Business for Asian Caterers; 180 businesses trained = 749 staff members including many staff who are unable to speak English. I was actively involved in this project which meant going into the community and recruiting Asian caterers face-to-face for training.

Lifelong Learning Network Grant £85K

This project was consistent with the objectives of the LLLN in that it involved employers and educational institutions to meet an existing skills gap and a future training need as identified by employers. The project will initially involved two employers, two universities and two colleges who form part of a Midlands Health Academy (MHA). The intention was to provide visual information regarding pathways and routes that include progression agreements between these institutions to enable local people to progress into and through education and employment. We have developed a skills escalator web site and added 26 videos that were produced by Media & Learning Technologies. Accords between the institutions have be developed so that individuals will be guaranteed advice and guidance on employment within the NHS, potential employment and movement into and between each educational institution as appropriate.

Wellcome Trust Grant £50K - Society Award for Public Engagement

Microbiology Roadshow overview

A team of experts in Microbiology from Aston University will visit 9 schools in 3 years spending 2 days working with young people in the 13-16 age group. The team will pass on their knowledge of the invisible world of microorganisms, making the invisible become visible with the use of microscopes and TV lenses and other devices. Young people will learn all about microorganisms; how they grow; how they spread; the disease states that they cause; how to treat infections and how to prevent infections from occurring. We will visit 3 schools a year for 3 years and the schools will be chosen in collaboration with Heart of Birmingham teaching Primary Care Trust, one of our partners from the Midlands Health Academy.

PhD Supervision

My PhD student. Vijay D’Souza, successfully completed his PhD in December 2007 and is currently working as a Post-Doc at Birmingham University.

Publications

Kearns, J. Y. and Hurd, H. (1993) Circulatory and storage carbohydrates in Hymenolepis diminuta infected Tenebrio molitor. (Poster at the British Society for Parasitology Spring Meeting).

Kearns, J. Y., Hurd, H. and Pullin, A.S. (1994) The effect of the metacestodes of the rat tapeworm Hymenoleps diminuta on circulating and storage carbohydrates in the intermediate host Tenebrio molitor. Parasitology, 108, 473-478.

British Patent Application No. M96/0111/GB (1996) Malaria Diagnostic Test.
Inventors Dr. Michael Murray and Julia Brown.

Gibson, W., Winters, K., Mizen, G., Kearns. J. and Bailey, M. (1997) Intraclonal mating in Trypanosoma brucei is associated with outcrossing. Microbiology, 143, 909-920.

Gibson W., Crowe, M., and Kearns, J. (1997) Kinetoplast DNA minicircles are inherited from both parents in genetic crosses of Trypanosoma brucei. Parasitology Research. 83, 483-488.

Brown, J., Dubrova, Y., Plumb, M. Bois, P. and Jeffreys, A. J. (1997) Radiation sensitivity in male mouse germ cells. Talk at the Wellcome Trust Mammalian Genetics and Development Workshop.

Dubrova, Y. E., Plumb, M., Brown, J., Fennelly, J., Bois, P., Goodhead, D. and Jeffreys, A. J. (1998) Stage specificity, dose response, and doubling dose for mouse minisatellite mutation induction by acute radiation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA. 95, 6251-6255.

Bois, P., Williamson, J., Brown, J., Dubrova, Y. and Jeffreys, A. J. (1998) A novel unstable mouse VNTR family expanded from SINE B1 elements. Genomics, 49, 122-128.

Dubrova, Y. E., Plumb, M., Brown, J. and Jeffreys, A. J. (1998) Radiation-induced germline instability at minisatellite loci. International Journal of Radiation Biology. 74, 689-696.

Dubrova, Y. E., Plumb, M., Brown, J. and Jeffreys, A. J. (1999) Radiation-induced mutations in minisatellite loci. International Journal of Radiation Medicine, 1, 90-100.

Brown, J, Reading, S. J., Jones, S., Fitchett, C. J., Howl, J., Martin, A., Longland, C. L., Michelangeli, F., Dubrova, Y. E. and Brown, C. A. (2000) Critical evaluation of ECV304 as a human endothelial cell model defined by genetic analysis and functional responses: A comparison with the human bladder cancer cell line T24/83. Laboratory Investigation. 80, 37-45.

Dubrova, Y. E., Plumb, M., Brown, J., Boulton, E., Goodhead, D. and Jeffreys, A. J. (2000) Induction of minisatellite mutations in the mouse germline by low-dose chronic exposure to -radiation and fission neutrons. Mutation Research, 453, 17-24.

Gibson, W., Bingle, L., Blendeman, W., Brown, J., Wood, J. and Stevens, J. (2000) Structure and sequence variation of the trypanosome spliced leader transcript. Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology, 107, 269-277.

Dubrova, Y. E., Plumb, M., Brown, J., Boulton, E., Goodhead, D. and Jeffreys, A. J. (2001) Reply to the letter to the editor. Mutation Research, 478, 209-210.

Brown, J. and Brown, C. A. (2003) Evaluation of reactive blue 2 derivatives as selective antagonists for P2Y receptors. Vascular Pharmacology, 39, 309-315.

D’Souza, V. K., Nelson, P. N., Brown, J. Y. and Brown, C. A. (2006) Evaluation of P2Y receptor subtypes in human endothelial cells. Poster at the Luxembourg Proteomics Conference October 11th-14th.
Brown, C. A., Brown, J. Y. and Coleman, M. D. (2007) How drug metabolism influences treatment outcomes. Expert Opinion in Drug Metabolism & Toxicology, 3 (6): 913-915.

Chapters

Dubrova, Y. E., Brown, J., Nesterov, V. N., Krouchinsky, N. G., Ostapenko, V. A., Plumb, M., Bois, P. and Jeffreys, (1999) Radiation-induced mutation at mammalian minisatellite loci. Fundamentals for the Assessment of Risks from Environmental Radiation, 259-264. Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Brown, J., Brown, C. A., Martin, A., Langel, U. and Howl, J. (2000) Peptide mimetics of receptor extracellular domains modulate signal transduction by P2Y2 receptors. Peptides for the New Millennium. 594-596. Kluwer Academic Publishers. (Invited speaker at the 16th American Peptide Symposium).

Brown, J., Howl, J., Martin, A., Soomets, U., Langel, U. and Brown, C. (2001) Single amino-acid substitutions in a mimetic tetradecapeptide agonist of the human P2Y2 receptor prevent second messenger activation. Peptides 2000 - Proceedings of the 26th European Peptide Symposium, 913-914, Ėditions EDK, Paris.