Dr Douglas Roy

Senior Lecturer, Coordinator of BSc Senior Honours in Infectious Diseases

Personal Profile

I was awarded a BSc in Biological Sciences and a PhD in cell cycle genetics from the University of Edinburgh in 1985, and my subsequent research career has been primarily based here. After postdoctoral research in yeast molecular genetics with Ian Dawes, I joined a team led by Ian McConnell at the department of Veterinary Pathology investigating the molecular pathogenesis of ruminant lentiviruses. I then continued my research interests in molecular virology with James Stewart and Tony Nash working on projects studying the molecular pathogenesis of murine gammaherpesvirus and Marek’s Disease virus. In 1999 I joined Peter Ghazal at the Scripps Research Institute, San Diego, to work on DNA microarray technology and returned to Edinburgh University to establish, with Peter, the Scottish Centre for Genomic Technology and Informatics (SCGTI), a research centre for microarray technology.  For several years, as Research Head of the SCGTI, I coordinated multiple DNA microarray projects, with a particular focus on the transcriptional profiling of herpesviruses.  The interaction of viruses with their host cells continues to be my primary research interest. I am a co-founder of two bioscience research instrumentation companies, Arrayjet Ltd and Lab901 (now the Agilent 2200 TapeStation system).

Teaching

In recent years, I have developed significant involvement and interests in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and training.  I was responsible for the development and coordination of a research MSc in Genomics and Pathway Biology and an online MSc in Translational Medicine.  I am currently the Organiser of the BSc/B.Med.Sci. Honours Programme in Infectious Diseases, which includes running the compulsory core course ‘Host-Pathogen Interactions in Infectious Disease’.  I also contribute teaching to several other undergraduate and postgraduate biomedical courses.  Much of my teaching interests and aims involve interacting extensively with colleagues at DIPM and the Biomedical Teaching Organisation in order to share and apply best practice in efforts to enhance the student learning experience in all respects. 

Selected Publications

Lu, H., Talbot, S., Robertson, K.A., Watterson, S., Forster, T., Roy, D and Ghazal, P.  Rapid proteasomal elimination of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase by interferon-gamma in primary macrophages requires endogenous 25-hydroxycholesterol synthesis (2015) Steroids doi: 10.1016/j.steroids.2015.02.022.

Raza, S., McDerment, N., Lacaze, P, Robertson, K., Watterson, S., Chen, Y., Chisholm, M., Eleftheriadis, G., Monk, S., O'Sullivan, Turnbull, A., Roy, D., Theocharidis, A., Ghazal, P and Freeman, T. (2010)  Construction of a Large Scale Integrated Map of Macrophage Pathogen Recognition and Effector Systems. BMC Systems Biology 2010 4:63, http://www.biomedcentral.com/1752-0509/4/63

Sands, R. and Roy, D.J (2010).  Translational Medicine, Phamaceutical Physicians, Patients and Payers. In Principles and Practice of Pharmaceutical Medicine, 3rd edition pp. 47-57.  Edited by L. D. Edwards A, W. Fox, and P. D. Stonier. Wiley-Blackwell

Robb, J.S., Roy, D.J., Ghazal P., Allan J. and Petrik, J. (2006). Development of non-agglutination microarray blood grouping.  Transfusion Medicine 16: 119-129

Wilson, W.H., Schroeder, D.C, Allen, M.J., Holden, M.T.G., Parkhill, J., Barrell, B.G., Churcher, C., Hamlin, N.,  Mungall, K., Norbertczak, H., Quail, M.A., Price, C., Rabbinowitsch, E., Walker, D.,  Craigon, M.,  Roy, D.J. and  Ghazal, P. (2005). Complete genome sequence and lytic phase transcription profile of a Coccolithovirus.  Science 309: 1090-1092

Aubert, J., Stavridis, M., O’Reilly, M., Vierlinger, K., Li, M., Tweedie, S., Ghazal, P., Pratt, T., Mason, J. O., Roy, D. and Smith, A.  (2003).  Screening for mammalian neural genes via FACS purification of neural precursors from Sox1-gfp knock-in mice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 100: 11836-11841.

Ebrahimi, B. M. Dutia, K. L. Roberts, J. J. Garcia-Ramirez, P. Dickinson, J. P. Stewart, P. Ghazal, D. J. Roy and A. A. Nash. (2003). Transcriptome profile of murine gammaherpesvirus-68 lytic infection.  Journal of General Virology 84: 99-109

Roy, D.J., Ebrahimi, B., Dutia, B.M., Nash, A.A. and Stewart, J.P. (2000). Murine gammaherpesvirus M11 gene product inhibits apoptosis and is differentially expressed during persistence in vivo.  Archives of Virology 145: 2411-2420

Usherwood, E.J., Roy, D.J., Ward, K., Surman, S.L., Blackman, M.A., Stewart, J.P. and Woodland, D.L. (2000).  Control of gammaherpesvirus latency by latent antigen-specific CD8+ T cells.  Journal of Experimental Medicine 192: 943-952.

Reyburn, H.T., Roy, D.J., Blacklaws, B.A., Sargan, D.R. and McConnell, I. (1992).  Expression of maedi-visna virus major core protein, p25: development of a sensitive p25 antigen detection assay.  Journal of Virological Methods 37: 305-320.