Obituary: Charalambos (Harry) Antoniades; 1974 – 2018

Professor Mark Thursz pays tribute to Harry Antoniades, Consultant Hepatologist and reader in hepatology who died suddenly on the 2 April 2018.

Harry grew up in Athens. He completed his undergraduate training at the Royal Free Hospital Medical School, London where he excelled with a series of prizes, merits and distinctions setting the groundwork for an academic career. After medical school and early training at the Royal Free and Hammersmith Hospitals, he took a registrar post at King’s College Hospital, which led to a period of doctoral research under the supervision of Prof Julia Wendon.

Harry combined clinical and academic training to become a master in his chosen fields of hepatology and liver immunology. He was awarded a lectureship at Imperial College, winning a prestigious EASL Sheila Sherlock Clinician Scientist Fellowship for his work on immune function in acute liver failure. He was appointed as Senior Lecturer at Imperial in 2013 and was rapidly promoted to Reader (Assistant Professor) in 2016. His research, funded by the Medical Research Council, Rosetrees Foundation and Wellcome Trust, made seminal discoveries on the cellular and molecular mechanisms which explain why patients with cirrhosis and liver failure are susceptible to infection.

In an era when academic success is measured in publications, grant income and impact statements, Harry was unquestionably a star. However, I think that Harry would like to be remembered most for his mentorship of students, post-docs and junior doctors. He stimulated his team to perform to the best of their abilities and to constantly strive for excellence. The results were high quality science and a tightly knit team who delighted in their work.

Alongside his academic productivity, Harry maintained and honed his medical skills and was widely in demand as a clinical opinion for patients with liver failure. Ever concerned with translating research into practice Harry set up the first ever clinic to manage and investigate the liver injury associated with the use of checkpoint inhibitors in oncology.

Harry’s death has been a tragedy for his research team, his colleagues at Imperial and St Mary’s Hospital and most of all for his wife and two children. In keeping with Harry’s modesty, he would have been surprised to see so many grown men and women shed tears in his memory.