Dr Lee Butcher is a Lecturer in Biomedical Sciences and member of the Cellular Senescence & Pathophysiology research group, within the Centre for cardiovascUlar Research, Innovation And Development (CURIAD). His 2 main research themes are:

1. The use of novel biomarkers in the identification of frailty in community dwelling older adults. Lee is one of the PI’s involved in the establishment of the ‘Move Well-Age Well’ study, which provides a frailty screening and prevention service in the community. The creation of this cohort will allow for the validation of novel screening tools to identify ‘pre-frail’ individuals who may benefit from individualised interventions and also the detection of blood biomarkers in pre-frailty that can be used as a quantitative tool when investigating intervention outcomes.

2. Investigation of IL-6R as a potential biomarker for fatigue in a range of clinical contexts. These contexts include long-COVID, chronic fatigue syndrome, overtraining, stress, and burn-out. Given that the IL-6R gene contains a single clinically relevant single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), which results in increased blood levels of soluble IL-6R, can this predispose individuals to an enhanced risk of fatigue-related conditions.

Prior to the above,  Lee worked on a large European Commission 7th Framework funded programme (namely FRAILOMIC), which investigated a number of key biomarkers associated with the deterioration of cognitive performance and increased inflammation observed with ageing. Still within the ageing field, Lee worked on an MRC funded project investigating the effects of socioeconomic status and lifestyle on biological ageing, through measuring telomere length. In addition, Lee has also worked on a pharmaceutical-funded project using shRNA technologies to identify the molecular pathways involved in megakaryocytopoiesis.