Clinical Research Fellow
Dr Aaron Braddy-Green is a Clinical Research Fellow in the Airway Disease Section at the National Heart and Lung Institute.
As far back as I can remember, I've always wanted to be a doctor - that's always been my aim. I think back to my teenage years and ensuring my chosen GCSE subjects aligned with a medical portfolio. As I progressed through secondary school and was doing well, a career in medicine, which seemed quite distant at first, became more of a possibility. Then when I moved into sixth form, loved chemistry and biology, did well in my A levels - I was encouraged by some very inspirational key people that helped me navigate the medical school application process. That wasn’t help that I had readily available at home as none of my family had ever gone to university. I grew up in Colchester in Essex, my mum was a cleaner and my dad is an electronics engineer.
"I felt that I wanted to be part of that bigger change"
And in terms of moving into science, as I progressed through medical school, I had the opportunity to interact with clinical academics and see the sort of magnitude of changes that they were able to affect. Not just for the patients that they directly saw in clinic, but by changing how we understand a disease or a potential treatment and exploring that - I felt that I wanted to be part of that bigger change. Whilst I would gladly see patients every day, on a personal level I think the pull to try and understand an unknown concept that might help many more patients than the ones I'm physically able to see, is just so exciting and appealing. And that's how I ended up trying to follow the clinical academic training pathway alongside my clinical training.
I've always been a sociable person. I like being around people and in fact get quite anxious when I'm working alone, and when I’m alone in general. The idea that there's a career where you can meet up to 50 new people in a day, who are your patients that you're seeing, and being able to use your knowledge and skill to make them feel better or have a better understanding of their health – well that’s like gold dust. Being able to blend being a sociable person with a scientific brain in a career was a no brainer. I think that's pretty much the answer I gave at my medical school interviews! In the main I think scientists in the past, and there have been some great exceptions, have not been that good at communicating the good work that they're doing, or making it understandable to the wider population. I think within healthcare research the wider public are our future potential patients and thus there is a desire from them to try and understand the research we do. Better communicating the work that we do to a wider population is what I see as our main role as clinical academics. I love the idea that the research I conduct, will hopefully, develop new understanding about Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) - development that might help inform people a bit more.
I love being a clinical doctor - you can meet new people every day and use your knowledge to make them feel better."
It's important we promote representation - no one should be restricted from achieving their potential. Protected characteristics should not be a barrier."
With the RAF Air Cadets I get to invest time into worthy young adults and hopefully inspire others."
I'm a specialist registrar in respiratory medicine about 18 months away from finishing my training, but took time out in April 2022 to come and do a clinical research fellowship at Imperial. The research I'm doing is focused on the pathophysiology of early COPD. Our team at NHLI is part of a large national observational study called the British Early COPD Network study. There are approximately 550 participants in the study, of which we have 200 at Imperial. My day-to-day job is to get those participants through their research visits, with the aim of the study being to try to understand what factors determine, in those who smoke, who goes on to develop COPD in later life.
It was always my intention to do a further degree or higher degree and as I've progressed through my clinical training, COPD and airway diseases have been the area of respiratory medicine that I want to sub-specialise in. Naturally, I was seeking opportunities to conduct research in this field. As with all these things it was slightly serendipitous, I was starting to look when I saw Professor Wedzicha’s job advert. The reason I was drawn to this group at NHLI is that you can go around most hospitals in London, and in pretty much every respiratory team , there's at least one person who has done a fellowship with Professor Wedzicha – it’s a well-trodden path. Another part of the appeal is that the research conducted by the group is very clinically sited, and that was the sort of project I wanted to be involved in. So it all fell into place at the right time, as these things can do.
I identify as a gay man. And I think that in itself is a very big journey that I’ve gone through, realising that. I was very fortunate to have met Cameron (now my husband) at a time when I was still trying to understand my sexuality, and he was a good friend before he was my boyfriend, which made it easier for me. Then there's always the nerves around sharing that with people close to you, but my family were so supportive. I’m convinced my mother loves Cameron more than me!
I guess the whole concept of the rainbow lanyard or badge is it increases visibility, not just visibility of LGBTQ+ people, but it increases visibility of the cause. There have been some good schemes that I've seen at Imperial to raise awareness, but in general there's not much visibility of LGBTQ+ people in science. Obviously, your sexual orientation is very personal and I can well understand why individuals would want to keep it that way.
I have two thoughts on this. One, it should just be normal that there are LGBTQ+ people in every form of work. I sometimes think why do we make this big song and dance about being LGBTQ+? But at the same time, I think it's important that we have representation for every protected characteristic in every field, and classically, science and medicine were very undiverse fields – I believe progress is being made but there is clearly work to still be done. So, with the rainbow lanyard and badge, I think it's important that we do show that we have representation.
Secondly, in the NHS, the rainbow badge scheme was supposed to be that if you wear the badge you're declaring your ally status. It’s not just a big badge saying “Hey, I'm LGBTQ+”, more than that it is saying “Hey, I'm here if you need support”, and I think that's a very lovely thing. I know there are lots of underrepresented groups, and I don't think the solution to everything is to make a new lanyard or to have another badge. But I think it's important that we promote representation and everyone from every walk of life can achieve whatever they want to achieve, and their protected characteristics should not be a barrier to them having that success.
A massive part of my life is volunteering with the Royal Air Force Air Cadets. It, rightly, takes up a good chunk of my spare time in the evenings and weekends. The opportunity to spend time trying to develop young adults in a quite challenging area of North London is, a challenge in itself, but also incredibly rewarding. I get a lot of enjoyment from it.
I've always wanted to do youth voluntary work, because, coming from my background, I was very fortunate to have a few key people in my life that supported me and supported my dreams and my intent. I know there's lots of widening participation programmes that exist, but it's very difficult to move into an unknown sphere when no one in your family or surrounding environment has that experience or can be that example. I certainly remember feeling that way myself. When something is so far removed from what is normal for you, it's very difficult, even with support, to visualise yourself achieving that. There's a lot of stuff - I guess it's like tacit knowledge - that if you're from a family that has doctors in it, or if you're from a family that has academics in it, you're inherently going to understand that culture a bit better, or have access to that culture. And there are some basic life skills that school doesn't have the time to develop within everyone. So, with the RAF Air Cadets, that's an organisation where I get to volunteer and invest some time into some very worthy young adults and try and help them to realise their full potential regardless of their start in life.
It is a great strength of the National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI) that there are lots of people and groups researching in very similar fields at the forefront of understanding a lot of respiratory diseases. It provides an opportunity for collaboration and shared understanding. However, it can be difficult to have full oversight of the work everyone else is doing and so there are occasional missed opportunities. For example, just earlier this year I was assisting with the BSc in Remote Medicine and met two clinical research fellows doing research similar to my group's, using the same type of patients and participants, but we recruit independently. It takes a lot of time and effort to recruit participants for research; I couldn’t help but think it would be much more efficient if we could recruit collaboratively, whilst still allowing research groups to have their own interests and independence.
With so much going on at NHLI, where people are developing new diagnostics and therapeutics, just being in that environment is inspiring and encouraging. And you want to be contributing equally to that. It's not like you're alone in a field trying to just find your way - there are people that you can easily turn to for guidance and support. And they’re always very forthcoming with that. So that's fantastic - to be part of an organisation that's got quite a narrow remit in terms of the types of the diseases it's studying, but to be within it is so diverse.
I think the most important thing for me is to have that balance between a clinical career and an academic career. After my clinical research fellowship, and once I've finished my PhD, I want to stay in academia. As I get more experienced, and more research exposure, I’d like to develop my own independent projects and try to carry those forward.
I think people that do too much of one thing tend to burn out quicker than those who have multiple feathers to their bows. A career in medicine allows you to explore other avenues like academic, education or clinical leadership. I’ve met countless colleagues during my clinical training who excel in these areas. Not all clinicians are the best academics and not all clinicians are the best educators. But a lot are very good at more than just being a doctor. For me, I really love education and I've tried my best since joining the NHLI to support a lot of the postgraduate and intercalated degree programmes that are run here by supervising projects or teaching. It's not that long ago that I was in the position of those students, it's less than 10 years, and I think back to all of the people that were kind enough to provide me with support and guidance and if I can be that to someone else - that's very important. So, in ten years time, I want to be a respiratory consultant with involvement in academia, and university level education for sure.
Financial support and funding is a massive barrier to accessing research. I guess it’s very optimistic to think that every person who might want to explore research and academia should be able to - but I think it's important that we work to equal out the opportunities. Like I have been, if you're fortunate enough to be in a hospital or an institution with eminent academics and you're able to get a bit of an in – it can be a massive advantage. I think it’s sad that some of my peers, who want to pursue academia, but don’t have the same opportunities might not be as lucky as I have been. So I'd like the opportunities to be involved in research to be more dispersed and available to all who wish to pursue it, no matter where they work or study.
Visit my portrait in meeting room 427/428 of ICTEM
on the Hammersmith Campus and see others 'Making Waves' below
Dr Blerina Ahmetaj-Shala is a BHF Research Fellow within the Cardio-Respiratory Interface Section at the National Heart and Lung Institute.
She talks about her research, teaching and work life balance.
Cecilia Johansson is a Professor of Mucosal Immunology within the Respiratory Infections Section at the NHLI.
She talks about mentoring, her immunology research and the many hats we all wear that make us who we are.
Sejal Saglani is a Professor of Paediatric Respiratory Medicine and Section Head of the IRD section at the NHLI.
She talks about her work treating childhood asthma, the importance of the team that surrounds her and how small vices can help us on difficult days.
Simone Walker is a Senior Research Technician in the Inflammation, Repair and Development Section at the NHLI.
She talks about her role as a technician, her love of reading and her Dominican heritage.