Home| Senior Lecturer |
Contact details:
| Tel: | +44 20 7882 2276 |
| Fax: | +44 20 7882 2182 |
| Email: | y.d.syndercombe-court@qmul.ac.uk |
| Address: | Academic Haematology Unit,, |
Biography
Denise Syndercombe Court entered the London Hospital Medical College in 1979 as a Research Assistant in the Department of Haematology, where she studied for her PhD in African Trypanosomiasis under the supervision of Professor George Jenkins. After gaining her PhD she remained within the department participating in several research programmes in metabolic medicine with Dr Barbara Boucher, in cardiology with Dr Peter Mills, in cardiothoracic surgery with Mr Terry Lewis, in respiratory medicine with Dr J Wedzicha and in thermal physiology with Professor Bill Keatinge before joining the Forensic Haematology section as a Lecturer with Dr Patrick Lincoln, taking over the section on Dr Lincoln's retirement. She was later promoted to the position of Senior Lecturer in the Department.
Denise has always had an interest in Medical Statistics and trained in medical statistics in the 1980s and participated in the undergraduate teaching programmes in medicine and dentistry in this field. In 1990 she was one of five teachers from The London to be trained in Evidence Based Medicine at McMaster University, Canada, was a tutor on the first UK How to Teach Evidence Based Medicine at Oxford University. She has undertaken training in survival and linkage analysis and completed the Diploma Course in Systematic Reviews at the Institute of Child Health. Over the last fifteen years she has been involved in training and teaching many groups in Evidence Based Healthcare throughout the UK, being commissioned by various NHS Trusts, medical post-graduate groupings, VieLife and NICE.
Since taking over the Forensic section Denise has continued to develop the service and expertise offered in criminal and civil forensic genetics, being appointed by the Lord Chancellor in 1993 and subsequently leading the laboratory to achieve Ministry of Justice and ISO 17025 Accreditation. She was appointed a consultant to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 2002 in order to guide them through their contract tender and has been one of two UK representatives on the European DNA Profiling Group (EDNAP) since 1998. Since then she has undertaken training in Forensic Gynaecology, obtained a post-graduate qualification in Forensic Statistics and is a Cardiff University Accredited Expert Witness. Denise is an external examiner on the MSc courses in Forensic Science and in DNA Profiling at Kings College London and the University of Central Lancashire, respectively and has recently been appointed Secretary-General of the British Academy of Forensic Sciences, and Secretary to the International Association of Forensic Genetics (English Speaking Group). She has appeared as an expert witness on many occasions and is regularly invited by the media to comment on matters of criminal identification.
Denise is a Chartered Scientist and Chartered Biologist and belongs to several professional societies: she is a Fellow of the Institute of Biological and Medical Sciences, Member of the Institute of Biology, Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, member of the International Society of Forensic Genetics, Advanced Certificated Member of the International Association of Blood Pattern Analysts and Member of the British Academy of Forensic Sciences. She is statistical reviewer for several medical journals and an expert reviewer for the British Heart Journal, Transfusion, Transfusion Medicine, Forensic Science International, FSI Genetics, British Journal of Haematology, Medicine, Science and the Law and the Journal of Clinical Forensic Medicine.
Teaching Activity
Within the medical school Denise has been involved in teaching undergraduates in both medicine and dentistry in haematology and blood transfusion, in addition to medical statistics, and has been a PBL facilitator since its inception. Denise is currently a Senior Tutor and has responsibility for all Graduate Entry students (Direct and Oxbridge) on the Medical Course. In addition she has responsibility for Medical Electives.
Research Activity
The group working within Forensic Haematology have been recipients of two European Union Grants given to further research in human identification. The more recent research has led to the development of multiplexes to type large numbers of snps from source DNA at picogram levels. This research continues with the development of specialist multiplexes to determine population of origin and we plan to take this further in order to consider markers that predict physiognomy. Other multiplexes have been developed using snps for the prediction of protein polymorphisms, often needed when cold cases are reopened. As a group we are also currently researching techniques to determine dog breed from hairs left at a scene of crime. Much of this work has been published and is detailed below. Denise also collaborates with other members of the Institute in their research and this is reflected within the following publications.
Key Publications
• Musgrave-Brown E, Ballard D, Fondevila-Alvarez M, Harrison C, Phillips C, Prasad Y, Sobrino B, Thacker C, Willhun J, Carracedo A, Schneider P, Syndercombe Court D (2007) Forensic validation of the Genplex SNP typing system - results of an interlaboratory study. FSI Genetics (in press)
• Harris K-A, Ballard D, Harrison C, Musgrave-Brown E, Thacker C, Syndercombe Court D (2007) Molecular analysis of the PGM phenotype FSI Genetics (in press)
• Ballard DJ, Harrison CD, Patel J, Musgrave-Brown E, Thacker C, Syndercombe Court D (2007). Discriminating European and South Asian Individuals using SNPs and pyrosequencing technology. FSI Genetics (in press)
• Phillips C, Salas A, Sanchez JJ, Fondevila M, Gomez-Tato A, Alvarez-Dios. J, Calaza M, Casares de Cal M, Ballard D, Lareu MV, Carradeo A, The SNPforID Consortium (2007). Inferring ancestral origin using a single multiplex assay of ancestro-informative marker SNPs. FSI Genetics 1: 273-280.
• Sanchez JJ, Phillips C, Borsting C, Balogh K, Bogus M, Fonevila M, Harrison CD, Musgrave-Brown E, Salas A, Syndercombe Court D, Schneider PM, Carracedo A, Morling N (2006). A multiplex assay with 52 single nucleotide polymorphisms for human identification. Electrophoresis 27: 1713-24.
• Brion M, Sanches JJ, Baloch K, Thacker C, Blanco-Verea A, Borsting C, Stradmann-Bellinghausen B, Dogus M, Syndercombe Court D, Schneider P, Carracedo A, Morling N. (2005). Introduction of a SNP-based major Y-chromosome haplogroup typing kit suitable for predicting the geographical origin of male lineages. Electrophoresis 26: 4411-20
