Diana Lockwood BSc MD FRCP

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Background

I am an infectious disease physician and leprologist working at the interface of tropical medicine/infectious diseases and clinical science. I trained in clinical medicine and laboratory science and have worked in Africa, India and the United Kingdom.

I currently head a research team at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine researching the molecular aspects of nerve damage in leprosy with the aim of improving outcomes for leprosy patients with nerve damage.

At the Hospital for Tropical Diseases I provide a national referral service for leprosy patients in Britain and see new and suspected cases of leprosy. This is a challenging job and entails caring for patients in the widest sense, from their T cells to their footwear. The many facets of leprosy mean that a teamwork approach is required to address the various disease complications.

I also run the evidence based medicine programme at The Hospital for Tropical Diseases.

I edit Leprosy Review, the premier leprosy journal.

Teaching

I do a range of lecturing small group teaching and clinical teaching. I teach on the folowing courses

DTMH, MSc (IHT, CID, Eye health), Diploma in Tropical Nursing.

I lecture on the DTMH at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and teach at St John's Institute of Dermatology.

I do postgraduate teaching at HTD

I also do undergraduate teaching at UCLH

I supervise MSc summer projects

Research

I currently head a research team at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine researching the molecular aspects of nerve damage in leprosy with the aim of improving outcomes for leprosy patients with nerve damage. This work is done in collaboration with the MRC/Lepra funded Blue Peter Research Centre, Hyderabad, India. We are studying the pathogenesis of reactions and looking at the effects of immuno-suppressant drugs on reactional pathology. The work focuses on molecular events in skin and nerve at the time of acute damage. We have published work on T cells, cytokines, chemokines in leprosy reactions. We have done well designed studies on using established immunosuppressants in treating leprosy nerve damage and trials of these agents are being further developed. In an exciting new piece of work we have used information from the M.leprae genome to develop strain typing for M. leprae, a previously untypable organism. This has given us new insights into M. leprae biology, showing us that M. leprae mutates fast in the community and also behaves differently in skin and nerve and gives us a new tool for looking at the transmission of leprosy.

Selected publications

• Marlowe, S.N.; Leekassa, R.; Bizuneh, E.; Knuutilla, J.; Ale, P.; Bhattarai, B.; Sigdel, H.; Anderson, A.; Nicholls, P.G.; Johnston, A.; Holt, D.; Lockwood, D.N.; Response to ciclosporin treatment in Ethiopian and Nepali patients with severe leprosy Type 1 reactions. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg, 2007; 101(10):1004-12
• Watson, C.L.; Lockwood, D.N.; Single nucleotide polymorphism analysis of European archaeological M. leprae DNA. PLoS One, 2009; 4(10):e7547
• van Brakel, W.H.; Nicholls, P.G.; Wilder-Smith, E.P.; Das, L.; Barkataki, P.; Lockwood, D.N. Early Diagnosis of Neuropathy in Leprosy-Comparing Diagnostic Tests in a Large Prospective Study (the INFIR Cohort Study) PLoS Negl Trop Dis, 2008; 2(4):e212
• van Veen, N.H.J.; Lockwood, D.N.J.; van Brakel, W.H.; Ramirez, J.; Richardus, J.H. Interventions for erythema nodosum leprosum Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2009; (3)
• Lockwood, D.N.; Lucas, S.B.; Desikan, K.; Ebenezer, G.; Suneetha, S.; Nicholls, P.; The histological diagnosis of leprosy Type 1 reactions: identification of key variables and an analysis of the process of histological diagnosis. J Clin Pathol, 2008; 61(5):595-600
• Ustianowski, A.P.; Lawn, S.D.; Lockwood, D.N.; Interactions between HIV infection and leprosy: a paradox. Lancet Infect Dis, 2006; 6(6):350-60
• Pocaterra, L.; Jain, S.; Reddy, R.; Muzaffarullah, S.; Torres, O.; Suneetha, S.; Lockwood, D.N.; CLINICAL COURSE OF ERYTHEMA NODOSUM LEPROSUM: AN 11-YEAR COHORT STUDY IN HYDERABAD, INDIA. Am J Trop Med Hyg, 2006; 74(5):868-79
• Andersson, A.K.; Chaduvula, M.; Atkinson, S.E.; Khanolkar-Young, S.; Jain, S.; Suneetha, L.; Suneetha, S.; Lockwood, D.N.; Effects of prednisolone treatment on cytokine expression in patients with leprosy type 1 reactions. Infect Immun, 2005; 73(6):3725-33

Full publications listing (since 2001)