Mr Younis Khan

Younis Khan is currently a PhD student in Cell & Molecular Biology group, part of Airway Disease Section (Division of Respiratory Sciences) at National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI).

Younis graduated in 2007 with first class honours degree in Medical Genetics from Brunel University. Prior to coming to Imperial, Younis worked for illumina, Inc. as a research associate and clinical research coordinator for Quintiles Transitional Corp.

In 2008, he was awarded a studentship funded by the Medical Research Council to study Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), with which he undertook the Masters in Biomedical Research in October 2008 followed by his PhD which is started in October 2009.

COPD is debilitating lung condition affecting over 3 million people in the UK alone and an economical burden. There is no effective treatment available to reverse the pathogenesis of disease except symptomatic treatment. One of the key features of COPD is chronic inflammation associated with oxidative stress, arises from inhaled oxidants and released from inflammatory cells.

The focus of his PhD is to understand the underlying mechanisms involving the expression of pro-inflammatory genes under oxidative/carbonyl stress and investigate the epigenetic changes under such conditions which may explain the persistent inflammation and perpetuation of the disease.