Dr Hannah Botfield PhD, MRes, BSc

Hannah Botfield

Department of Inflammation and Ageing
Research Fellow

Contact details

Email
h.botfield@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
Address
Department of Inflammation and Ageing
黑料吃瓜网
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Hannah Botfield is a research fellow based within the Department of Inflammation and Ageing.

Her research interest is in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) dynamics in health and disease. Her work focusses on understanding the pathology behind CSF dysfunction in disorders such as hydrocephalus and haemorrhagic stroke, with an emphasis on the role of inflammation, matrix biology and ageing.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Neuroscience, 黑料吃瓜网, 2014
  • MRes in Tissue engineering, repair and regeneration, 黑料吃瓜网, 2010
  • BSc in Biomedical Science, Cardiff University, 2008

Biography

Hannah graduated with a BSc from Cardiff University in 2008 and moved to the 黑料吃瓜网 where she completed an MRes (2010) before embarking on a PhD, ‘modelling and preventing the development of chronic communicating hydrocephalus’ with Prof Ann Logan and Dr Ana Maria Gonzalez. During her PhD Hannah collaborated with Prof Pat McAllister, and was awarded a Postgraduate Researcher Overseas Work Experience Scholarship to work in his lab at the University of Utah (Salt Lake City, USA) for 3 months.

After graduating her PhD in 2014 Hannah commenced a post-doctoral position with Prof Alexandra Sinclair, which focussed on idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) and repurposing GLP-1R agonists for use in raised ICP conditions. During this time she spent over a year working at the world-leading Danish Headache Center (Copenhagen, Denmark) in collaboration with Prof Rigmor Jensen.

Recently she has been awarded a Wellcome ISSF Accelerator Fellowship (2017) and a Medical Research Foundation Award (2019) to develop her research in CSF dynamics and stroke.

Teaching

Undergraduate teaching

  • Biomedical Science BSc

Postgraduate supervision

  • Post-graduate supervisor

Research

Research interests

Hannah’s research focusses on cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) disorders such as idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH), hydrocephalus and haemorrhagic stroke. She also conducts research into ocular disorders such as glaucoma which shares similar dysregulated fluid dynamics.

She is interested in understanding how changes in fluid dynamics, inflammation, matrix biology and ageing contribute to pathology in order to develop novel therapeutic strategies to improve patient outcome.

 Current projects

  • Investigating anti-scarring agents to treat inflammation and fibrosis in post-haemorrhagic hydrocephalus
  • Determining the impact of haemorrhagic stroke on fluid dynamics and brain ageing
  • Developing in vitro models of haemorrhagic stroke to determine the impact of blood products on the brain
  • Developing anti-scarring eye drops for anterior segment fibrosis in glaucoma

Other activities

Member of:

  • British Neuroscience Association
  • Society for Endocrinology
  • British Inflammation Research Association

Current member of the Postdoctoral and Early Researcher Career Training and Development committee at the 黑料吃瓜网

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Mugo, CW, Church, E, Horniblow, RD, Mollan, SP, Botfield, H, Hill, LJ, Sinclair, AJ & Grech, O 2025, '', The Journal of Headache and Pain, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 125.

Hardy, RS, Botfield, H, Markey, K, Mitchell, JL, Alimajstorovic, Z, Westgate, CSJ, Sagmeister, M, Fairclough, RJ, Ottridge, RS, Yiangou, A, Storbeck, K-HH, Taylor, AE, Gilligan, LC, Arlt, W, Stewart, PM, Tomlinson, JW, Mollan, SP, Lavery, GG & Sinclair, AJ 2021, '', Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, vol. 106, no. 1, pp. 174-187.

Hill, LJ, Botfield, H, Begum, G, Qureshi, O, Vigneswara, V, Masood, I, Barnes, N, Bruce, L & Logan, A 2021, '', npj Regenerative Medicine, vol. 6, no. 1, 3.

Westgate, C, Botfield, H, Alimajstorovic, Z, Yiangou, A, Walsh, M, Smith, G, Singhal, R, Mitchell, J, Grech, O, Markey, K, Hebenstreit, D, Tennant, D, Tomlinson, J, Mollan, S, Ludwig, C, Akerman, I, Lavery, G & Sinclair, A 2021, '', JCI Insight, vol. 6, no. 10, e145346.

Markey, K, Mitchell, J, Botfield, H, Ottridge, R, Matthews, T, Krishnan, A, Woolley, R, Westgate, C, Yiangou, A, Alimajstorovic, Z, Shah, P, Rick, C, Ives, N, Taylor, A, Gilligan, L, Jenkinson, C, Arlt, W, Scotton, W, Fairclough, RJ, Singhal, R, Stewart, PM, Tomlinson, JW, Lavery, G, Mollan, S & Sinclair, A 2020, '', Brain Communications, vol. 2, no. 1, fcz050.

O始Reilly, MW, Westgate, C, Hornby, C, Botfield, H, Taylor, A, Markey, K, Mitchell, J, Scotton, W, Mollan, S, Yiangou, A, Jenkinson, C, Gilligan, L, Sherlock, M, Gibney, J, Tomlinson, JW, Lavery, G, Hodson, D, Arlt, W & Sinclair, A 2019, '', JCI Insight, vol. 4, no. 6, e125348.

Scotton, WJ, Mollan, SP, Botfield, H, Yiangou, A, Markey, K, Sinclair, AJ, Walters, T, Doughty, S & Williamson, S 2018, '', BMJ open, vol. 8, no. 5, e020445.

Hornby, C, Mollan, S, Botfield, H, O始Reilly, MW & Sinclair, A 2018, '', Journal of Neuro-Ophthalmology, vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 522鈥�530.

Yiangou, A, Mitchell, J, Markey, KA, Scotton, W, Nightingale, P, Botfield, H, Ottridge, R, Mollan, SP & Sinclair, AJ 2018, '', Cephalalgia.

Abstract

Hewitt, B & Botfield, H 2025, '', Brain and Neuroscience Advances, vol. 9, 23982128251339055, pp. 2-3.

Roberts, L, Hewitt, BJ, Kitchen, P, Bill, R & Botfield, H 2025, '', Brain and Neuroscience Advances, vol. 9, 23982128251339055, pp. 2-2.

Preprint

Hewitt, BJ, Roberts, L, Roberts, JA, Fulton, D, Hill, L, Kitchen, P, Bill, RM & Botfield, H 2025 '' bioRxiv.

Hewitt, BJ, Ali, M, Hubbard, J, Hill, LJ & Botfield, H 2024 '' Research Square.

Review article

Hewitt, BJ, Ali, M, Hubbard, J, Hill, LJ & Botfield, H 2025, '', Journal of the American Heart Association.

Anwar, R, Bellamy Plaice, G, Geddes, A, Botfield, HF, Hill, LJ & Masood, I 2024, '', Journal of Clinical & Translational Ophthalmology, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 155-170.