Professor Dilly Anumba
(MBBS, FWACS, MD, FRCOG, LLM Medical Law)

Chair of Obstetrics & Gynaecology
Consultant in Obstetrics & Gynaecology
Subspecialist in Fetomaternal Medicine

Academic Unit of Reproductive and Developmental Medicine
Level 4, The Jessop Wing
Tree Root Walk
Sheffield
S10 2SF
UK

Office: JW4 40

Tel: +44 (0)114 2268317/2261075
Fax: +44 (0)114 2268538
Email: d.o.c.anumba@sheffield.ac.uk

Biography

I joined the University of Sheffield in 2003 as Senior Clinical Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Obstetrics and Fetal Medicine following research and clinical training in Newcastle University and hospitals in Yorkshire and the Northern region. I was accredited a specialist in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in 1999, and a subspecialist in Maternal and Fetal Medicine in 2001. Since 2003, I have maintained busy clinical and academic roles.

Research Interests

I am interested in the physiology of human parturition, particularly the role of immunity and inflammation in term/preterm labour and pregnancy hypertension. I am also investigating new techniques to predict preterm birth by the detection of cervical remodelling changes. I run specialist clinics in Prenatal Diagnosis and Fetal Therapy, Prematurity Prevention, and High Risk Pregnancy, all of which have research spin-offs.

Teaching Interests

My main interest is postgraduate medical training and teaching and I am the Programme Director for Academic Training for the Medical School and South Yorkshire. I am a Lead for the Phase 3A Women´s Health undergraduate module, and External Examiner to the Newcastle University Medical School (Year 3 Foundations of Clinical Practice). I am Training Programme Supervisor for the Maternal and Fetal Medicine subspecialty training programme, Sheffield and serve on the South Yorkshire Foundation Training School Board, Clinical Academic Working Group, and Specialty Training Committee in Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

Professional Activities

I head the Education and Training Group, and serve on the Executive Board, of the British Maternal and Fetal Medicine Society. I am Lead Clinician of the Fetal Medicine Unit, Sheffield. I am a member of the NICE Medical Technologies Advisory Committee (MTAC).

Current Projects

• Principal Investigator, Assessing the Risk of Spontaneous Premature Birth by Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy of the Cervix. £622,048 from the MRC Development Pathways Funding Scheme, DPFS. 2012-2016 Collaborators: Brian Brown, Simon Dixon, Georgina Jones, Graham Stafford, Craig Murdoch

• The preterm birth prediction microbiome project- MRC Development Pathways Funding Scheme, DPFS. 2012-2016 with Graham Stafford and Craig Murdoch

• Principal Investigator, Potential prediction of preterm labour and birth by novel spectroscopic techniques.£320,138 from NIHR Invention for Innovation Stage 2. Collaborators: Timothy Healey, Brian Brown, Simon Dixon and Jonathan Boote. 2012-2015.

• Functional expression and regulation of pattern recognition receptors in the female reproductive tract during pregnancy and its disorders – funded PhD studentships

• Fetal prenatal imaging and diagnosis – Amongst others, The Role of MRI in Detecting Fetal Brain Abnormalities –The MERIDIAN Study. £1.4 million from the HTA, with Paul Griffiths (PI) et al

• Investigating the impact of health inequalities on maternity care and outcomes, risk aversion during pregnancy – with Georgina Jones, Caroline Mitchell and Ganna Pogrebna, Leverhulme Fellow in Economics

Key Publications

1. Al-ofi E, Coffelt SB, Anumba DO. Monocyte subpopulations from pre-eclamptic patients are abnormally skewed and exhibit exaggerated responses to Toll-like receptor ligands. PLoS One 2012;7(7):e42217. Epub 2012 Jul 27
2. Ghule, VV, Gray, C, Galimberti, A, and Anumba, DO (2012) Prostaglandin-induced cervical remodelling in humans in the first trimester is associated with increased expression of specific tight junction, but not gap junction proteins. Journal of Translational Medicine Mar 7;10:40
3. Jones, GL, Morrell, CJ, Cooke, JM, Speier, D, Anumba, D, Stewart-Brown, S (2011) The development of two postnatal health instruments: one for mothers (M-PHI) and one for fathers (F-PHI) to measure health during the first year of parenting. Quality of Life Research 20:1011-22
4. Turner RM, Lloyd-Jones M, Anumba DO, Smith GC, Spiegelhalter DJ, Squires H, Stevens JW, Sweeting MJ, Urbaniak SJ, Webster R, Thompson SG. Routine antenatal anti-D prophylaxis in women who are Rh(D) negative: meta-analyses adjusted for differences in study design and quality. PLoS One 2012;7(2):e30711
5. Anumba, DO, El Gelany, S, Elliott, SL, and Li, TC (2010) Circulating levels of matrix proteases and their inhibitors in pregnant women with and without a history of recurrent pregnancy loss. Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology 8:62
6. Anumba, DO, Lincoln, K and Robson, SC (2010) Predictive value of clinical and laboratory indices at first assessment in women referred with suspected gestational hypertension. Hypertension in Pregnancy 29: 163-179
7. Jokhi, RP, Brown, BH and Anumba, DO (2009) The role of cervical Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy in the prediction of the course and outcome of induced labour. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth 9:4
8. Jokhi, RP, Ghule, VV, Brown, BH, and Anumba, DO (2009) Reproducibility and repeatability of measuring the electrical impedance of the pregnant human cervix-the effect of probe size and applied pressure. Biomedical Engineering Online 8:10
9. Fazeli A, Bruce C, Anumba DO (2005) Characterization of Toll-like receptors in the female reproductive tract in humans. Human Reproduction 20:1372-1378
10. Anumba DO, Scott JE, Plant ND, Robson SC. (2005) Diagnosis and outcome of fetal lower urinary tract obstruction in the northern region of England. Prenatal Diagnosis 25(1):7-13