Emeritus ProfessorMyraMcClure

Summary

Myra McClure Ph.D. D.Sc. FRCPath. Professor of Retrovirology, Head, Section of Infectious Diseases.

Research

Her work on foamy viruses, funded by the Wellcome Trust, has contributed to the understanding of these atypical retroviruses and to their development as vectors for gene therapy. The prototype foamy virus vector is currently being prepared for testing in a mouse model against a rare genetic disease, metachromatic leukodystrophy. If successful, this will bring the long-term aim of the first clinical trial of these vectors closer.

Recently, her group showed that the xenotropic murine leukaemia virus-related virus (a murine endogenous retrovirus) was not associated with either chronic fatigue syndrome or prostate cancer and that such claims were the result of laboratory contamination events. Current work on (human) endogenous retroviruses is looking at their role in HIV infection and in melanoma and, in collaboration with the Sanger Institute, the role of antibody in HIV infection.

Diagnostics

Since the academic Department of GU Medicine was founded in 1992, she has worked with GUM physicians and Paediatricians to provide clinical virology assays before the introduction of commercial kits. These have included diagnosis of paediatric HIV infection, quantitation of HIV viral load and Mycoplasma genitalium, and HIV, HBV and HCV genotyping. The Molecular Diagnostics Unit which she directs and Dr Steve Kaye manages gained CPA accreditation in 2006.(http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/departmentofmedicine/divisions/infectiousdiseases/infectious_diseases/mdu/).

AHSC

When appointed as R & D Director for St Mary’s Hospital in 2006 she was responsible, along with Dr Robina Coker and Prof Charles Pusey (Hammersmith), for the submission of the first NIHR Biomedical Research Centre application which attracted £100M to the new AHSC in 2007.

She is a Board and Executive member of the NW London Comprehensive Local Research Network.

Education

Deputy Head of Division (Teaching) (2002-2006), Year 1 and Year 2 Curriculum Group Chairman (2002-2003),Final Year Curriculum Group (2003-2004),Education Sub-Committee Year 4  (2003,Foundation Course Review Committee (2006-2007), Chair - BSc Quality Assurance Sub-Group (2007),Higher Degrees Research Committee, Department of Medicine (2010- ),GSLSM Academic Training Committee (2010),Awards for Excellence in Teaching Panel (2009-).

Imperial College Transferable Skills Review Panel (2011): Member of Executive Panel, Member of Post-Doctoral Working Party, Chair, PhD Working Party.

Particularly well-cited papers

Delayed anti-HCV antibody response in HIV-positive men acutely infected with HCV.
Thomson EC, Nastouli E, Main J, Karayiannis P, Muir D, McClure MO. AIDS (2009) 23, 89-93.
Voted one of the top 10 HIV papers of the year 2009-10 by the British HIV Association

 Failure to Detect the Novel Retrovirus XMRV in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.  Erlwein O, Kaye S, McClure MO, Weber JN, Wills G, Collier D, Wessely S, Cleare A. PLoS ONE (2010) 6, 5(1).
4^th most cited clinical paper worldwide in 2010 (Scopus).  In June 2010 PLoS One received its first Impact Factor, 4.351, largely as a result of this paper published in January 2010.

 DNA extraction columns contaminated with murine sequences.  Erlwein O, Robinson MJ, Dustan S, Weber J, Kaye S, McClure MO.  PLoS One (2011) 6:e23484.
This paper  was selected and evaluated by Etienne Joly, a Member of the Faculty of 1000 (F1000), which placed our work in their library of the top 2% of published articles in biology and medicine (Article factor 6).

 

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