Contact

• workRoom W/E 1379 E Floor, West Block
  Queen's Medical Centre
  Nottingham
  NG7 2UH
  UK
• work01158231151
• Stuart.Astbury@nottingham.ac.uk

Biography

I am a Senior Research Fellow in the Nottingham Digestive Diseases Centre and NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre. Currently I am part of an EU/IMI project aiming to understand the immune response during drug-induced liver injury (DILI) and develop new biomarkers to aid in its detection. I also provide bioinformatics methods support to researchers within the Nottingham BRC. From 2022-2024 I was deputy lead for postgraduate student training in the School of Medicine.

Expertise Summary

• Sequencing (whole genome/exome studies, bulk and single cell RNAseq, metagenomics, Oxford Nanopore).
• Mass cytometry and high dimensional flow cytometry.
• Immunogenetics & genome-wide association studies.

Research Summary

Current research projects include:

• Immune phenotyping in checkpoint and drug-induced liver injury using mass/flow cytometry, single-cell and bulk RNA-seq
• Genome-wide association studies and immunogenetics
• Viral deep sequencing (amplicon-based and metagenomic approaches) on Illumina and minION platforms
• Effects of host and virus genotypes on immune response
• The application of AI-based image analysis in liver pathology
• The microbiome in liver disease - 16S and metagenomic sequencing
• Serum and tissue markers of disease progression in both non-alcoholic and alcoholic liver disease
• A number of the above projects involve international collaboration, I have helped establish a molecular biology lab at the Population Health and Research Institute, Trivandrum, India as part of our NAFLD studies there, and have carried out HBV deep sequencing work at Hasanuddin University, South Sulawesi, Indonesia.

Recent Publications

• HASHIM, AHMED, BREMNER, STEPHEN, GROVE, JANE I, ASTBURY, STUART, MENGOZZI, MANUELA, O’SULLIVAN, MARGARET, MACKEN, LUCIA, WORTHLEY, TIM, KATAREY, DEV, AITHAL, GURUPRASAD P and OTHERS, 2022. Chronic liver disease in homeless individuals and performance of non-invasive liver fibrosis and injury markers: VALID study Liver International. 42(3), 628-639
• ASTBURY, STUART, REYNOLDS, CATHERINE J, BUTLER, DAVID K, MUNOZ-SANDOVAL, DIANA C, LIN, KAI-MIN, PIEPER, FRANZISKA P, OTTER, ASHLEY, KOURAKI, AFRODITI, CUSIN, LOLA, NIGHTINGALE, JESSICA and OTHERS, 2022. HLA-DR polymorphism in SARS-CoV-2 infection and susceptibility to symptomatic COVID-19 Immunology.
• VIJAY, AMRITA, ASTBURY, STUART, LE ROY, CAROLINE, SPECTOR, TIM D and VALDES, ANA M, 2021. The prebiotic effects of omega-3 fatty acid supplementation: a six-week randomised intervention trial Gut Microbes. 13(1), 1863133
• MENNI, CRISTINA, LOUCA, PANAYIOTIS, BERRY, SARAH E, VIJAY, AMRITA, ASTBURY, STUART, LEEMING, EMILY R, GIBSON, RACHEL, ASNICAR, FRANCESCO, PICCINNO, GIANMARCO, WOLF, JONATHAN and OTHERS, 2021. High intake of vegetables is linked to lower white blood cell profile and the effect is mediated by the gut microbiome BMC Medicine. 19(1), 1-10

• View all publications

Past Research

My PhD from the Division of Child Health, Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Nottingham covered maternal gastrointestinal and liver adaptation to pregnancy, and the effect of maternal diet on this adaptation, as well as the effect of maternal diet on GI development in the offspring. I also spent 2 years as a Visiting Graduate Student at the Alberta Diabetes Institute, University of Alberta, Canada.

I previously worked in the Molecular Gastroenterology group at the University of Sheffield, studying the role of fibre, butyrate and histone deacetylase inhibition in colorectal cancer progression.

• HASHIM, AHMED, BREMNER, STEPHEN, GROVE, JANE I, ASTBURY, STUART, MENGOZZI, MANUELA, O’SULLIVAN, MARGARET, MACKEN, LUCIA, WORTHLEY, TIM, KATAREY, DEV, AITHAL, GURUPRASAD P and OTHERS, 2022. Chronic liver disease in homeless individuals and performance of non-invasive liver fibrosis and injury markers: VALID study Liver International. 42(3), 628-639
• ASTBURY, STUART, REYNOLDS, CATHERINE J, BUTLER, DAVID K, MUNOZ-SANDOVAL, DIANA C, LIN, KAI-MIN, PIEPER, FRANZISKA P, OTTER, ASHLEY, KOURAKI, AFRODITI, CUSIN, LOLA, NIGHTINGALE, JESSICA and OTHERS, 2022. HLA-DR polymorphism in SARS-CoV-2 infection and susceptibility to symptomatic COVID-19 Immunology.
• VIJAY, AMRITA, ASTBURY, STUART, LE ROY, CAROLINE, SPECTOR, TIM D and VALDES, ANA M, 2021. The prebiotic effects of omega-3 fatty acid supplementation: a six-week randomised intervention trial Gut Microbes. 13(1), 1863133
• MENNI, CRISTINA, LOUCA, PANAYIOTIS, BERRY, SARAH E, VIJAY, AMRITA, ASTBURY, STUART, LEEMING, EMILY R, GIBSON, RACHEL, ASNICAR, FRANCESCO, PICCINNO, GIANMARCO, WOLF, JONATHAN and OTHERS, 2021. High intake of vegetables is linked to lower white blood cell profile and the effect is mediated by the gut microbiome BMC Medicine. 19(1), 1-10
• ASTBURY, STUART, GROVE, JANE I, DORWARD, DAVID A, GUHA, INDRA N, FALLOWFIELD, JONATHAN A and KENDALL, TIMOTHY J, 2021. Reliable computational quantification of liver fibrosis is compromised by inherent staining variation The Journal of Pathology: Clinical Research. 7(5), 471-481
• VIJAY, AMRITA, ASTBURY, STUART, PANAYIOTIS, LOUCA, MARQUES, FRANCINE Z, SPECTOR, TIM D, MENNI, CRISTINA and VALDES, ANA M, 2021. Dietary interventions reduce traditional and novel cardiovascular risk markers by altering the gut microbiome and their metabolites Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine. 683
• BOZWARD, AMBER, ASTBURY, STUART, ATALLAH, EDMOND, WOOTTON, GRACE, GROVE, JANE, PATEL, POULAM, RAO, ANKIT, MA, YUKTING, PUNIA, PANKAJ, AITHAL, GURUPRASAD and OTHERS, 2021. CXCR3pos CD27pos CD161pos NK cells in autoimmune and drug induced liver injury position around lectin like transcript-1 expressing Kupffer cells and CD70pos dendritic cells In: JOURNAL OF HEPATOLOGY. S303-S303
• ASTBURY, STUART, SOARES, MARCIA MARIA COSTA NUNES, PEPRAH, EMMANUEL, KING, BARNABAS, JARDIM, ANA CAROLINA GOMES, SHIMIZU, JACQUELINE FARINHA, JALAL, PAYWAST, SAEED, CHIMAN H., SABEER, FURAT T., IRVING, WILLIAM L., TARR, ALEXANDER W. and MCCLURE, C. PATRICK, 2020. Nanopore sequencing from extraction-free direct PCR of dried serum spots for portable hepatitis B virus drug-resistance typing Journal of Clinical Virology. 129, 104483
• ATKINSON, STEPHEN R, GROVE, JANE I, LIEBIG, STEPHANIE, ASTBURY, STUART, VERGIS, NIKHIL, GOLDIN, ROBERT, QUAGLIA, ALBERTO, BANTEL, HEIKE, GUHA, INDRA NEIL, THURSZ, MARK R, NEWCOMBE, PAUL, STRNAD, PAVEL and AITHAL, GURUPRASAD P, 2020. In Severe Alcoholic Hepatitis, Serum Keratin-18 Fragments Are Diagnostic, Prognostic, and Theragnostic Biomarkers. The American Journal of Gastroenterology. 115(11), 1857-1868
• ATKINSON, STEPHEN R, GROVE, JANE I, LIEBIG, STEPHANIE, ASTBURY, STUART, VERGIS, NIKHIL, GOLDIN, ROBERT, QUAGLIA, ALBERTO, BANTEL, HEIKE, GUHA, INDRA NEIL, THURSZ, MARK R and OTHERS, 2020. In Severe Alcoholic Hepatitis, Serum Keratin-18 Fragments Are Diagnostic, Prognostic, and Theragnostic Biomarkers Official journal of the American College of Gastroenterology| ACG. 115(11), 1857-1868
• ATKINSON, STEPHEN, GROVE, JANE, LIEBIG, STEPHANIE, ASTBURY, STUART, GOLDIN, ROBERT D, QUAGLIA, ALBERTO, BANTEL, HEIKE, GUHA, NEIL, THURSZ, MARK, STRNAD, PAVEL and OTHERS, 2020. In alcoholic hepatitis, cytokeratin 18 serum fragments reflect its severity and predict responsiveness to prednisolone Journal of Hepatology. 73, S179
• ASTBURY, STUART, ATALLAH, EDMOND, VIJAY, AMRITA, AITHAL, GURUPRASAD P, GROVE, JANE I and VALDES, ANA M, 2019. Lower gut microbiome diversity and higher abundance of proinflammatory genus Collinsella are associated with biopsy-proven nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. Gut microbes. 1-12
• GROVE JI, THIAGARAJAN P, ASTBURY S, HARRIS R, DELAHOOKE T, GUHA IN and AITHAL GP, 2018. Analysis of genotyping for predicting liver injury marker, Procollagen III in persons at risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Liver International. 38(10), 1832-1838
• ASTBURY, STUART, SONG, ALEIDA, ZHOU, MI, NIELSEN, BRENT, HOEDL, ABHA, WILLING, BENJAMIN P., SYMONDS, MICHAEL E. and BELL, RHONDA C., 2018. High Fructose Intake During Pregnancy in Rats Influences the Maternal Microbiome and Gut Development in the Offspring: Frontiers in Genetics Frontiers in Genetics. 9,
• SONG A, ASTBURY S, HOEDL A, NIELSEN B, SYMONDS ME and BELL RC, 2017. Lifetime Exposure to a Constant Environment Amplifies the Impact of a Fructose-Rich Diet on Glucose Homeostasis during Pregnancy. Nutrients. 9(4),
• GROVE, J. I., THIAGARAJAN, P., ASTBURY, S., HARRIS, R., DELAHOOKE, T., CARD, T. R., GUHA, I. N. and AITHAL, G. P., 2017. Prevalence of combined PNPLA3 and GCKR variant genotype is increased in patients with risk factors for alcoholic or non-alcoholic liver disease who have clinically significant serum procollagen III levels Journal of Hepatology. 66(1), S587
• LINEKER, CHRISTOPHER, KERR, PAUL M., NGUYEN, PATRICIA, BLOOR, IAN, ASTBURY, STUART, PATEL, NIKHIL, BUDGE, HELEN, HEMMINGS, DENISE G., PLANE, FRANCES, SYMONDS, MICHAEL E. and BELL, RHONDA C., 2015. High fructose consumption in pregnancy alters the perinatal environment without increasing metabolic disease in the offspring Reproduction, Fertility and Development.
• ASTBURY, STUART, MOSTYN, ALISON, SYMONDS, MICHAEL E and BELL, RHONDA C, 2015. Nutrient availability, the microbiome, and intestinal transport during pregnancy Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism. 40(11), 1100-1106
• ASTBURY, STUART, SONG, ALEIDA, NIELSEN, BRENT, COURSEN, NICOLE, HOEDL, ABHA and BELL, RHONDA, 2014. A high fructose diet during pregnancy significantly affects markers of intestinal permeability in the offspring (816.2) The FASEB Journal. 28(1 Supplement), 816-2
• SONG, ALEIDA, ASTBURY, STUART, COURSEN, NICOLE, HOEDL, ABHA and BELL, RHONDA C, 2014. Maternal High-Fructose Intake Induces Adverse Effects on Their Metabolic Profile and that of Their Female Offspring in Pregnancy Canadian Journal of Diabetes. 38(5), S73-S74
• ASTBURY, STUART MARK, BELL, RHONDA C, MOSTYN, ALISON, SHARKEY, DON and SYMONDS, MICHAEL E, 2013. Supplementation of commercial pig feed with palm oil during pregnancy downregulates genes related to development and permeability in the offspring small intestine The FASEB Journal. 27, 867-7
• ASTBURY, STUART M and CORFE, BERNARD M, 2012. Uptake and metabolism of the short-chain fatty acid butyrate, a critical review of the literature Current Drug Metabolism. 13(6), 815-821